Telefónica's mass redundancy plan signals deepening Latin American retreat
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The leaders of both Hungary and Slovakia have hailed the victory of billionaire ex-PM Andrej Babiš’ ANO party in the Czech general election on October 3-4.
Babiš’ expected return to power is likely to provide an ally to Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, who have repeatedly clashed with fellow EU members on support for Ukraine and more broadly on the bloc’s values.
Speaking to Slovak state broadcaster STVR, Fico hinted that Prague, Bratislava and Budapest will cooperate more closely at regional level.
“As I know the likely new prime minister of the Czech Republic Mr. Babiš he will be interested in regional cooperation,” Fico was quoted as saying on STVR’s regular weekend political programme O 5 minút 12 (5 to 12).
Fico added that “it will depend very much on whether the trio Babiš, Orbán and Fico will in the same spirit be able to also convince the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.”
As bne IntelliNews reported, ANO won the Czech elections in a landslide with 34.51% of the vote, about a one percentage point shy of the record victory ever registered in Czechia (in 2006), and strongly ahead of the centre-right Spolu coalition, led by incumbent Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which mobilised just 23.36% support, according to the final vote count.
Separately, Orbán also praised Babiš for his victory, posting “truth prevailed” on his Facebook profile, which is a Czech national motto associated also with the first post-communist president and playwright Václav Havel, whose legacy was invoked in mass demonstrations against Babiš’s previous cabinet (2017-2021).
ANO’s leader is to pursue a minority cabinet backed by far-right SPD and anti-Green Motorists, signalling that the most Eurosceptic cabinet Czechia has yet seen could be formed in Prague.
ANO’s October victory could also tempt Orbán to renew efforts at cooperation on the V4 platform, comprising Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, under his national conservative agenda, though it is questionable how effective such cooperation would be without Poland, whose population is larger than that of Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia combined.
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