ANO won in ten of 13 districts and will be able to govern three of them alone. In other regions, ANO will have to look for coalition partners, which will not be easy for them. There is a risk that other parties will form a majority against them, which has happened several times in the past.
Sobering result for coalition
Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s liberal-conservative five-party coalition suffered a heavy defeat in the two-day election that ended on Saturday afternoon. The governing parties were only able to win in three districts – South Bohemia, South Moravia and LIberec.
“This is an outstanding success, and we are very happy about it,” said Babiš, commenting on the election results on Saturday. He accused the government coalition of not being able to show results. “It is destroying our country,” he stressed. According to Fiala, “the election result reflects reality.” “I am not happy about it. For us, it is neither a success nor a fatal failure,” said the head of government.
Important mood test
In the partial Senate elections taking place at the same time, the decision was made in the first round in five constituencies because the winning candidates there received the required absolute majority of votes. In the other constituencies, no candidate managed to do this, so there will be a run-off election between the two best-placed candidates in a week. The regional authorities and a third of the 81 seats in the second parliamentary chamber (Senate) were newly filled in the voting on Friday and Saturday.
The elections were seen as an important nationwide mood test before the parliamentary elections, which must take place in autumn 2025 at the latest. Polls had predicted a victory for the protest movement ANO. It had already come out on top in the European elections in May. As a result, it allied itself with the FPÖ and the national conservative Hungarian governing party Fidesz to form a new right-wing populist alliance. Their alliance “Patriots for Europe” is the third largest group in the EU parliament.
This article was last updated at 6:52 p.m.
