Czech election 2025: ANO, led by populist billionaire Andrej Babiš, wins parliamentary polls

Populist Czech billionaire Andrej Babiš won a parliamentary election on Saturday in a political comeback that puts the country on a course away from supporting Ukraine and toward Hungary and Slovakia, which have taken a pro-Russian stance.

Czech election 2025

With the votes from almost 98 per cent of polling station counted by the Statistics Office, Babiš's ANO (YES) movement captured 35 per cent of the vote followed by the pro-Western coalition of Prime Minister Petr Fiala with 23.0 per cent. The coalition defeated him 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, had 11.1 per cent of the vote, with another ally of Fiala, the Pirates party, reaching 8.7 per cent.

The major anti-migrant force, the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, got 7.9 per cent while a right-wing group calling itself the Motorists received 6.8 per cent. The two are potential partners for Babiš if he wants to have a majority government.

‘Czechs first’

Czech President Petr Pavel, who will tap the next premier under the constitution, said he would start talks with the elected party heads on Sunday.

Pavel met Babis earlier this week to discuss the tycoon's clash of interest as a businessman and politician, and the fact that Babis is facing trial over EU subsidy fraud worth over $2 million.

Babis is charged with taking his farm south of Prague out of his sprawling Agrofert food and chemicals holding in 2007 to make it eligible for an EU subsidy for small companies.

Describing himself as a "peacemonger" calling for a truce in Ukraine, Babis has vowed a "Czechs first" approach, echoing US President Donald Trump.

When he was prime minister from 2017 to 2021, Babis was critical of some EU policies and is on good terms with Orban and Slovakia's Robert Fico, who have maintained ties with Moscow despite its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian propaganda

Charles University analyst Josef Mlejnek told AFP he did not expect “a fundamental change” in Czech foreign policy under Babis, who has business interests in western Europe.

“Babis is a pragmatic businessman and the only thing he cares about is being prime minister,” he added.

Petr Just, an analyst at the Metropolitan University in Prague, told AFP a government led by Babis might use harsher rhetoric towards Brussels.

“I would certainly not rule out that we will witness some rhetorical questioning of certain Western steps or actions that the West will take,” he said.

Analysts have pointed out the role of Russian propaganda in the election campaign.

The Czech Online Risks Research Centre said last week that Czech-language accounts on TikTok reaching millions of viewers "systematically spread pro-Russian propaganda and support anti-system parties through manipulated engagement".

The European Commission held an “emergency meeting” with TikTok on Thursday “in the context of the Czech elections,” after which the social media platform removed “several bots,” said its spokesman Thomas Regnier.

(With inputs from agencies)