The opposition populist ANO party led by billionaire ex-prime minister Andrej Babiš is set to win the election to the Czech parliament by a landslide after 99.9% of the votes have been counted on October 4.

ANO is on course for a historic victory with 34.59% of the vote, well ahead of the centre-right Spolu coalition, led by incumbent Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which mobilised just 23.32% support, according to the preliminary vote count. 

“We have great numbers, the best in the history of elections to the parliament,” Babiš was quoted as saying by Czech Radio (CRo), adding he is “overwhelmed”.

“It’s been a ride,” he said of the result, which sets ANO to make a powerful comeback to power after four years in opposition. It spent most of that time the top of the polls, while Fiala’s cabinet sank to one of the lowest levels of support for any Czech government ever.

Fiala conceded the largely anticipated defeat, thanking voters and congratulating “the election victor Andrej Babiš as well as all the participating parties” on his X (formerly Twitter) social media account.

Coalition options 

President Petr Pavel announced he will hold talks with five parties and coalition leaders on October 5. 

Babiš has already signalled he will seek post-election collaboration with far-right opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), which underperformed with 7.79% of the vote, and the anti-green Motorists, which will make a debut in the parliament with 6.78%. Overall, Czechia could be getting the most Eurosceptic cabinet the country has yet seen.

However, Babiš may seek a less-toxic-looking one-party ANO cabinet with only parliamentary support from SPD and the Motorists, in a pursuit of his goal to rule alone, which he declared several times ahead of the elections.

Babiš reiterated he would also resolve his conflict of interest stemming from his ownership links to the food, agriculture and chemical conglomerate Agrofert. “I promised to the president that I will meet him and show him a solution which would be in accordance with the Czech and European laws,” Babiš told the media.

Besides his links to Agrofert, the scandal-hit Babiš is also standing trial in a subsidy fraud case, something which appears not to affect his own or ANO’s popularity. Babiš insists that the trial is “politically motivated”. 

The results represent a fourth consecutive election loss for Fiala, and voices quickly emerged, including the re-elected Civic Democratic Party (ODS) MP Ivan Adamec, who called for a change at the helm of Fiala’s own party, the neoliberal ODS, which should hold a party summit before the end of the year.

Aside from ANO, parties in the new parliament will include ruling centrist STAN (11.20%) and the liberal Pirate Party (8.92%). 

The red-brown Kremlin-leaning Stačilo! coalition, led by the Czech Communist Party, and joined by the social democratic SOCDEM in a hopeless attempt to return to parliament, sits below the 5% parliamentary threshold with 4.31%, in what may be a small consolation prize to the country’s liberals.

The voter turnout was 68.9%, which is the highest since 1998, and also higher than the 65.43% in 2021. 

Aged 71, Babiš is poised to become the oldest Prime Minister in Czech history.

ANO's election result comes just short of the 2006 record electoral victory by ODS led by Mirek Topolánek with 36%.