The ANO party cruised to an emphatic victory in parliamentary elections held across the Czech Republic. This was largely anticipated, however the nearly 30 percent showing was somewhat stronger expected. On the hand, ANO’s governing coalition partner, the Social Democrats (CSSD) nearly disintegrated and will occupy just 15 parliamentary seats in the new parliament (compared with ANO’s 78). The best-performing ‘traditional’ party, the conservative ODS, only managed to pick up 25 seats with around 11 percent of the vote. The surprise of these polls turned out to be the Pirate party, which also produced a double-digit result (10% of the vote) and 22 seats. However, a new right-wing, anti-immigration/EU party (SPD) did equally well and will also take 22 seats in the parliament.
The result was interpreted by foreign media as the latest domino to fall in CEE, placing the party’s leader, Andrej Babiš, in the same mold as Hungarian PM Viktor Orban or Poland’s Lech Kaczynski and predicting new EU tensions. Others called him a Czech version of Donald Trump, as he is a wealthy businessman. Unlike Trump, however, he has engaged in politics actively in recent years after building a powerful movement through a sophisticated, long-term marketing campaign. And unlike Orban, his party never came close to winning a majority of the votes, meaning his power will be considerably diminished compared to his Hungarian equivalent.
Babiš should be able to form a coalition government, but he will have to overcome the rhetoric of a bruising election campaign in which he was pilloried for being under investigation for fraud. Many fear that he will make full use of the power of the important media outlets that fall into his business empire. Business leaders may be encouraged that the new premiere is likely to follow similar economic policies as he pursued as finance minister in the last government. But this, too, remains to be seen, given that ANO will now be in the driver’s seat.
