Czech Election Results: Babiš's Party Will Not Be Able To Create A Government On Its Own
9- 5.10.2025, 10:08
- 9,898
Possible coalition partners will not be easy to find.
The ANO movement of the country's former prime minister, billionaire and Eurosceptic Andrzej Babiš is leading in the elections of the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of parliament) in the Czech Republic. After 99% of ballots were counted, ANO gained about 34.6%, while the pro-European Party Together (SPOLU) of current Prime Minister Petr Fiala gained about 23%, writes BBC.
ANO, however, will not be able to get its own majority in parliament, so Babiš's movement will have to look for coalition partners and it will be extremely difficult to create one. The ANO party is not ready to work with Fiala's party (nor is Fiala ready to work with ANO).
Besides ANO and Together, four other parties are entering parliament:
STAN ("Mayors and Independents", part of the current governing coalition) gains about 11% of the vote;
the pro-European "Pirate Party" with 8.9%;
the far-right SPD ("Freedom and Direct Democracy") with 7.8%;
The Motorists (a right-populist Eurosceptic party that is in the same faction as ANO in the European Parliament) with 6.8%.
The far-left movement "Enough!" (Stačilo!), which advocates leaving the EU and has been mentioned as a possible, albeit unlikely, partner of the ANO, does not pass the five-percent threshold: it has only 4.3%.
Will Babiš now become prime minister?
The final election results may be announced later than usual this time, as Czech citizens living outside the country can vote by mail for the first time.
In previous parliamentary elections, the results were known late in the evening of the second voting day.
The main question now is what kind of coalition the ANO will manage to put together - and whether it will succeed in principle. One possible scenario is the emergence of a minority government in the Czech Republic.
The Czech news agency ČTK calculates that ANO, SPD and the Automobilists together will win a maximum of 116 seats in the lower house of parliament out of 200. That is enough for an ordinary majority, but not enough for a constitutional majority.
An ANO election victory also does not guarantee Babiš the post of prime minister.
In the Czech Republic, it is up to the president to decide who should form the government, and Petr Pavel has already asked experts to conclude on Babiš's possible conflict of interest over the billionaire's Agrofert holding company.
Before the election, however, Pavel promised to "respect the will of the voters" and "act in accordance with the constitution."
Andrej Babiš was prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. He resigned after the ANO failed in elections to the Chamber of Deputies.
What Babiš said about Ukraine and the EU
Babiš calls himself a peace advocate and has called for an end to the war in Ukraine.
He puts forward the slogan "Czechs first," reminiscent of similar calls by U.S. President Donald Trump.
From 2017 to 2021, he headed the Czech government and criticized some European Union decisions.
He also maintains good relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo (both of these politicians have maintained ties with Moscow despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine).
On Saturday night, an employee of the Ukrainian public television channel Suspilne asked Babiš about his stance on supporting Ukraine.
"I met with Zelensky three times. And I supported him after the annexation of Crimea," Babiš replied. - So we are helping Ukraine through the EU, the EU is helping Ukraine. It is in the next European budget. We pay a lot of money into the European budget - and we will continue to help in this way."
Babiš also called for an end to a Czech initiative to supply Ukraine with artillery shells, saying it costs too much. Under the program, the Czech Republic seeks shells from around the world and buys them for Ukraine with the support of Kiev's other Western allies.
In the spring, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said Kiev hoped to receive 1.8 million artillery shells under the "Czech initiative" by the end of this year.
Babiš does not believe that military aid to Ukraine should be completely stopped, but calls for the issue to be handed over to NATO and the European Union.
"It should be transparent. And if there is a war, no one should make money from the war. It should be organized by NATO," Babiš said of this program.
When asked if he would support Ukraine's accession to the EU and NATO, Babiš said, "But you are not ready for the EU. We have to finish the war first. We can cooperate with Ukraine, but you are not ready for the EU."
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