The new Czech cabinet led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’ populist ANO party was signed in by the country’s liberal President Petr Pavel on December 15.

ANO joined forces with the far right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and anti-green and Eurosceptic Motorists for Themselves parties after it won the October general election to the Czech parliament, where the three parties wield a comfortable majority of 108.

Babiš, who previously served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021, is making a comeback to power after overcoming objections from Pavel regarding his ownership links to the agrochemical conglomerate Agrofert, which Babiš announced earlier this month he would dispose of. Although it paved the way for his appointment as PM, it did not disperse criticism from anti-graft watchdogs, who warn Babiš can still act in a way which will benefit Agrofert. 

The ANO-led cabinet is poised to be the most rightwing Czech government since World War II, which has concerned liberals in the country. NGOs and public media fear the Babiš-led cabinet could target them after it singled out NGOs in the ruling coalition documents and after the incoming cabinet members made comments about changes to the financing of public media.

Regular protests are also being held by students and environmentalists against the decision to hand over the environmental portfolio to the Motorists led by Petr Macinka, who had previously worked at the Institute of Václav Klaus think-tank, which has been criticised for casting doubt on climate change.

During the swearing-in ceremony for cabinet members, Pavel again reiterated the importance of Czechia’s membership in the EU and Nato. Although the three parties committed to upholding the memberships in their programme document, SPD advocated Czexit prior to joining the new ruling coalition with ANO and the Motorists.

“We should approach the membership to these institutions with maximum responsibility and be responsible and constructive members rather than refuters,” Pavel stated.

“Tomorrow our government will be set up and it will be a ride,” Babiš sent a message to his supporters on his Facebook profile ahead of the swearing in of his cabinet, signalling that his government will move “incredibly fast”. 

“We are working, we don’t want another hundred days of grace,” Babiš declared later, after the cabinet swearing in, repeating his mantra of workaholism, which accompanied his political career since the 2010s, and with which he credited his success as businessman in the latter part of the country’s wild 1990s privatisation era. 

Mixed messages over policy 

ANO’s leaders continued to attack Brussels’ green policies in the days leading up to the cabinet formation, prompting expectations that Babiš could align his government policies, including on Ukraine, closely with those of Budapest and Bratislava. 

Babiš already hinted his cabinet would review Czech state aid to Ukraine, though he reiterated the cabinet would not oppose commercial military aid from the country’s booming defence industry. 

However, Babiš also travelled to Brussels last week shortly after his appointment as PM where he made comments apparently aimed at diffusing the significance of his previous meeting with members of the Slovak cabinet of populist PM Robert Fico, who, like Hungarian PM Vitkor Orbán, welcomed ANO’s electoral victory.

“It is true that, of course, I have long term ties with Viktor Orbán, because we have been prime ministers together. But it is not like I only have two allies here,” Babiš was quoted as saying by Czech Radio (CRo) during his trip to Brussels, where he also met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and praised the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) financial defence programme as “very good”. 

While he told the media that “I am looking for allies for the Czech Republic everywhere,” pointing to his meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Babiš also confirmed that he is to meet Orbán this week during the summit of the nationalist Patriots for Europe grouping in the European Parliament.

It is these seemingly contradictory statements that have prompted many Czech analysts, such as Václav Dolejší of Seznam Zprávy (SZ), to argue that it is impossible to predict how radical Babiš’ cabinet could be.

Earlier this year, Babiš tuned down his vocal support for the US president’s MAGA Trumpism after Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on EU imports, a move which was met with criticism across much of the Czech political spectrum even though the export-oriented economy took a milder than expected hit from the tariffs.

At the same time Babiš, whose previous cabinet faced some of the largest mass protests in the history of the country, does not avoid opportunities to pick on themes such as criticism of the school curriculum, which observers say could be aimed at whipping up culture wars, as Fico and Orbán like to do, or could just be an attempt to ride a wave of media attention.