Populist Billionaire Babiš’s Party on Track for Victory in Czech Election

Billionaire Andrej Babiš’s ANO party is poised for victory in Saturday’s parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, raising the prospect of a government that could bolster Europe’s populist, anti-immigration bloc and scale back support for Ukraine.

Estimates from Czech media suggest that ANO could secure around 35% of the vote, roughly 22 percentage points ahead of Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s Spolu (Together) coalition. However, the party would still need coalition partners to form a government.

According to the Czech Statistical Office, with 38% of votes counted, ANO is leading with 38.9%, while Spolu trails at 19.8%.

Who Could Babiš Work With?

If ANO falls short of an outright majority, Babiš will need support from other parties to form a government or at least sustain a minority cabinet—potentially including the far-right, EU-skeptic, and NATO-critical SPD.

ANO has ruled out deals with the current ruling parties and the liberal Pirates, who were part of the government until last year.

The party could also consider a coalition with the Motorists’ Party, which opposes the EU’s planned phase-out of fuel-powered cars. Potential far-left ally Staňsilo! failed to clear the 5% threshold required to enter parliament in partial results.

Babiš, who led a centrist-left government from 2017 to 2021, is an ally of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and has collaborated with several far-right parties in the European Parliament’s Patriots for Europe group, challenging mainstream European policies, including decarbonization initiatives.

While he has rejected the SPD’s calls for the Czech Republic to leave the EU and NATO, he has pledged to end the “Czech Initiative,” under which Western donor funds were used to purchase millions of artillery pieces for Ukraine.

ANO wants assistance to Ukraine to be handled by NATO and the European Union and has previously abstained from some European Parliament votes supporting Kyiv and its EU membership bid, positions Babiš has historically opposed.