“Czech Populist Billionaire Babis Scores Election Triumph”

Bil­lion­aire Andrej Babis’s ANO par­ty cruised to vic­to­ry in the Czech Republic’s par­lia­men­tary elec­tion on Sat­ur­day, rais­ing the prospect of a gov­ern­ment that would boost Europe’s pop­ulist, anti-immi­gra­tion camp and reduce sup­port for Ukraine.

An ebul­lient Babis told sup­port­ers that ANO would seek a one-par­ty cab­i­net but would talk with two small par­ties – includ­ing the far-right SPD – for sup­port as his par­ty will lack an out­right major­i­ty.

He again reject­ed accu­sa­tions that his win would make the cen­tral Euro­pean nation a less reli­able Euro­pean Union and NATO part­ner.

Who will Babis team up with?

“We want to save Europe … and we are clear­ly pro-Euro­pean and pro-NATO,” Babis told reporters.

With near­ly all results in, ANO was set to replace the cur­rent cen­ter-right cab­i­net led by Prime Min­is­ter Petr Fiala. Fiala con­grat­u­lat­ed Babis and con­ced­ed defeat.

ANO promised faster growth, high­er wages and pen­sions, and low­er tax­es and tax dis­counts for stu­dents and young fam­i­lies dur­ing the cam­paign.

Those pledges – that will cost bil­lions of euros, end aus­ter­i­ty and test the country’s fru­gal mind­set – res­onat­ed with many Czechs who have seen their real incomes plunge in recent years as the coun­try tack­led soar­ing infla­tion.

Babis, how­ev­er, must over­come some hur­dles to become prime min­is­ter, includ­ing con­flict-of-inter­est laws as own­er of a chem­i­cals and food empire and long-run­ning fraud charges relat­ed to draw­ing an EU sub­sidy over 15 years ago – charges he denies.

With 99% of vot­ing dis­tricts count­ed, ANO was lead­ing on 34.7% and Spolu in sec­ond on 23.2%, the Sta­tis­ti­cal Office said.

Pres­i­dent Petr Pavel, who will appoint the next prime min­is­ter, was expect­ed to start talks with par­ty lead­ers on Sun­day.

ANO was seen win­ning around 80 seats in the 200-seat low­er house, results pro­jec­tions showed, and so will need to find wider sup­port.

Babis said he would talk to the Motorists, who oppose the EU’s Green poli­cies, and the anti-EU and anti-NATO SPD.

Strong Czechia’

“We went into the elec­tion with the aim of end­ing the gov­ern­ment of Petr Fiala and sup­port even for a minor­i­ty cab­i­net of ANO is impor­tant for us and it would meet the tar­get we had for this elec­tion,” SPD Deputy Chair­man Radim Fiala said on tele­vi­sion.

Over­all, the fringe pro-Russ­ian par­ties fared worse than expect­ed in the par­tial results, with SPD on 7.8% and the far-left Staci­lo!, built around the Com­mu­nist Par­ty, below the 5% thresh­old to enter par­lia­ment.

Babis, who led a cen­ter-left cab­i­net in 2017–2021, once want­ed to join the euro but has since become a euroscep­tic and a sup­port­er of US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, hand­ing out “Strong Czechia” base­ball caps inspired by Trump’s MAGA slo­gan.

An ally of Hun­gar­i­an leader Vik­tor Orban, Babis has teamed up with a num­ber of far-right par­ties in the Patri­ots for Europe group in the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment to chal­lenge the main­stream direc­tion of Europe’s poli­cies, includ­ing decar­bon­i­sa­tion.

He has reject­ed calls from SPD to hold a ref­er­en­dum on leav­ing the EU and NATO, but has said he would end the “Czech ini­tia­tive” that has bought mil­lions of artillery rounds from around the world for Ukraine with fund­ing from West­ern donors.

ANO wants NATO and the EU to han­dle aid for Ukraine, and has abstained in some Euro­pean Par­lia­ment votes sup­port­ing Kyiv and its bid for EU mem­ber­ship, which Babis has opposed in the past.