With Babiš’s victory the Czech Republic looks set to join Hungary and Slovakia in refusing support for Ukraine
The populist billionaire Andrej Babiš has won the Czech Republic parliamentary elections, preliminary results show, but fallen short of the overall majority.
This win marks a political comeback for Babiš, who was prime minister from 2017 to 2021. He is expected to put the country on a course away from supporting Ukraine and towards Hungary and Slovakia, who have taken a pro-Russian path.
With the votes from almost 98% of polling stations counted by the Czech statistics office, Babiš’s ANO (YES) party captured 35% of the vote, followed by the pro-western coalition of the prime minister, Petr Fiala, with 23.0%. The coalition defeated Babiš in the 2021 election.
The two-day election filled 200 seats in the lower house of the Czech parliament. A group of mayors known as STAN, also a member of Fiala’s government, received 11.1% of the vote, with another ally of Fiala, the Pirates party, getting an 8.7% share.
