The newly formed ANO political party, a member of the Czech government coalition, came in first in the state European Parliament (EP) elections last weekend, taking 16.13 percent of the vote, followed closely by Top 09 with 15.95 percent and the Social Democrats (ČSSD) with 14.17 percent. The Communists, Christian Democrats (KDÚ-ČSL), Civic Democrats (ODS) and Party of Free Citizens also entered the European Parliament. ANO landed four EP seats, as did the Social Democrats and TOP 09. The Communists and Christian Democrats won three seats, ODS grabbed two and the non-parliamentary Free Citizens secured one seat.
ANO’s leader, the current Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babiš, said he expected better results and blamed poor voter turnout. Only 18.2 percent of eligible Czech voters participated in the election, one of the lowest voter turnouts to date. The Social Democrats and ANO are now fighting over who should hold the post of Euro Commissioner. ANO’s candidate, Pavel Telička, served as a Czech representative in Brussels in 2004. In a poll conducted by Focus for Czech TV, 35 percent of Czechs would like to see Telička return to Brussels. The candidate for the Social Democrats, Pavel Mertlík, meanwhile, received just 13 percent support in the poll.
