00:00When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,
00:0521-year-old Diana Harnik fled to the Czech Republic in search of refuge.
00:10But the victory of right-wing populist Andrei Babiš and his ANO party in the country's recent
00:15parliamentary election has sparked concern among many within Czechia's large Ukrainian refugee
00:21community. Since the start of the war, more than 350,000 Ukrainians have sought refuge here,
00:27building new lives and homes. But with Babiš's return to power, refugees like Diana say that
00:33their sense of security is beginning to fade. If you analyze somehow speeches of Andrei Babiš,
00:39we kind of heard some uncertainty about some refugees and mostly he's mentioning that he's
00:46criticizing previous Czech government basically for their initial support of Ukraine. But now
00:55he's kind of coalitioning with some SPD party and Montereste. This coalition, let's say,
01:03can influence his decision and his government. Billionaire Andrei Babiš, the populist leader
01:11of the ANO party, is set to form the next government by forming a coalition with the far-right Freedom
01:16and Direct Democracy party and the right-wing Motorists for Themselves movement. Reports suggest
01:22the new government will include MPs who have expressed pro-Russian views and are calling for a
01:27review of all Ukrainians currently living in the Czech Republic. Maria Gorbatova, who works as an
01:33analyst at EUROPEUM, an independent think tank focused on European integration, says that Ukrainians
01:38could become a target in a broader anti-migrant narrative. The program towards refugees is very
01:45different. ANO hasn't been really clear on what they want to do. They have just been opposing the
01:54prolongation of temporary protection of refugees, which is prolonged every year. So they have been
02:02rather against it. But they haven't been, they didn't have such strong claims as SPD. SPD is saying really,
02:11let's revise every temporary protection of every Ukrainian. And only if we see that they are working
02:19at a job in which a Czech person cannot substitute them, let's have these people still live here. So
02:26it's a pretty extremist rhetoric. When the war began, Diana Harnik was studying law in Ukraine. Urged
02:32by her grandmother to seek safety and better opportunities abroad, she fled to Czechia. Since
02:38then she's learned the Czech language, begun studying political science and found work as a HR assistant.
02:44But despite rebuilding her life, Diana remains uncertain about the future, both for herself and for the
02:49thousands of other Ukrainian refugees now in the country. It's definitely that we feel uncertain and
02:57we're not sure about what it, what it should be, what it will be basically. Because you know, like the,
03:04I would not say that it's safety to go into Ukraine now, because like mostly of my friends are from
03:09eastern part of Ukraine. And I heard some like terrific stories from that, from, from their relatives.
03:17And we are not sure about if we can stay here basically. And so, yes, it's like, as I told you,
03:27it's stressful in the war period for us and we don't know how to, how it will be.
03:31Many analysts say that parties like ANO and SPD exploited public frustration about inflation and the
03:38energy crisis in their election campaigns by implying that government funds are being spent on migrants,
03:44instead of improving life for ordinary Czech citizens.
03:50For local communities, I know that like a lot of my friends and me personally faced with some
03:55hate comments about the Ukrainians, etc. And just want to say and mention that
04:04just kind of type the same people as Czechs here.
04:07With the change in Czechia's political landscape, Diana and tens of thousands of other Ukrainian
04:13refugees hope that the new government will not introduce policies that will negatively affect them.
04:19At the same time, they place their trust in Czechia's democratic institutions.
04:28But it's really hard for them to find this.
04:40It's really hard for them to find this.
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