Analysis of Organization and Appealing Strategies in Freedom and Direct Democracy Party of Tomio Okamura

The party Freedom and Direct Democracy is the second successful entrepreneurial project of the Czech-Japan politician Tomio Okamura. The first project of Okamura, the party Dawn of Direct Democracy, entered the parliament in 2013 election with the campaign emphasizing populist issues and call for direct democratic tools. The party structure was extremely exclusive, with only nine members and strong position of party leader. After the exclusion of Okamura from the parliamentary club and his departure from the party, Okamura founded a new party called Freedom and Direct democracy, which is still leader-oriented but declares opening towards new party members. The party was successful in the Czech national election 2017 with 10.6% of votes and 22 mandates thanks to the strong populist and anti-immigration rhetoric. New kinds of organizational structure challenge the requirements of intra-party democracy. As well, the populist rhetoric works well with the anti-establishment moods in the Czech Republic, and with the decrease of support for democracy in the country. The paper will analyse and compare the organization and appeals of both parties, and based on comparisons will identify the changes in strategies towards the members and voters that enabled the repeat of the electoral success of Okamura's party in 2017.