The Alliance of the New Citizen was a liberal political party in Slovakia existing from 2001 to 2011. The acronym was a pun on áno, Slovak for "yes". It was founded and led by media entrepreneur Pavol Rusko. The party positioned itself as liberal and was a member of international liberal organisations. It was part of the centre-right governing coalition of Prime MinisterMikuláš Dzurinda from October 2002 to September 2005. ANO was legally succeeded by the Free Word Party of Nora Mojsejová in November 2011, when Eleonóra Mojsejová a Slovak businesswoman and TV personality took over the party. The party changed its name to CITIZENS in 2013 and in 2014 to IDEA. The president is Miroslav Leňo.
Foundation
The party was founded in 2001 as the Alliance of the New Citizen. It was the first modern political party in Slovakia to consider itself to be liberal. Its leader Pavol Rusko was also the founder and former owner of Markíza. Rusko at first thought to join the Party of Civic Understanding which was part of the previous government, yet after some bad blood, around January 2001 Rusko decided to create a new political party.
Elections and government participation
In August 2002, Pavol Rusko claimed that the party is financed completely from his own money, and the money of his close friend, businessman Ján Kováčik who borrowed the party an undisclosed sum of money. Rusko estimated the cost of the political party to 25 million Slovak korunas so far, with an additional 15 million expected for the campaign before the 2002 Slovak parliamentary election. In the election, the party finished sixth, gaining 230,309 votes and capturing 15 out of 150 seats in the National Council of the Slovak Republic. ANO was a member of the government coalition together with SDKÚ, SMK-MKP and KDH from October 2002 to September 2005, when it was expelled from the coalition after disputes with both SDKÚ and KDH. The party remained in opposition until the next parliamentary election but a group of MPs around Ľubomír Lintner continued to support the government. The following ANO nominees were part of the Second Mikuláš Dzurinda government:
In March 2003 an internal conflict started within the party between its leader Pavol Rusko and Economy Minister Robert Nemcsics and Deputy Transport MinisterBranislav Opaterný. The party's regional organizations unanimously supported Rusko and the party's regional board meetings unambiguously called on both Nemcsics and Opaterný to abdicate from their positions and give up their deputy mandates. On 6 March 2006, Jirko Malchárek, František Tóth and Alexandra Novotná created a new political party Hope. In the parliamentary election of June 17, 2006, the party won only 1.42% of the popular vote and lost parliamentary representation. It did not take part in other elections and slowly fell into obscurity.
Successor parties
In 2011 the party was bought by a known Slovak businesswoman Nora Mojsejová who did not have to collect thousands of signatures needed by law to register a new political party. If a party, that is already registered changes its name, no signatures are necessary. Mojsejová changed its name to Free Word Party of Nora Mojsejová and entered the 2012 Slovak parliamentary election where she received 1.22% of votes, not winning any seats in the National Council but finishing ahead of long-time Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar's People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia. In 2013 party changed its name to CITIZENS. In 2014 party changed again its name to IDEA and new president became Miroslav Leňo.
