Former PM Babis' ANO party wins Czech election

PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's opposition ANO party, led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babis, has won the country's parliamentary election, according to official results from a near-complete vote count on Saturday.

With over 99 percent of the voting districts counted in the election, ANO had garnered nearly 34.6 percent of the vote, while the ruling center-right SPOLU coalition came in second place with 23.3 percent.

Other parties clearing the 5 percent threshold included the Mayors and Independents (STAN) with 11.2 percent, the Pirate Party with 8.9 percent, the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) with about 7.8 percent, and the populist Motorists for Themselves with nearly 6.8 percent.

Babis called the election result the absolute highlight of his political career.

"We are extremely happy and we thank everyone who came to the polls," he said, claiming that ANO achieved a historic result.

Babis added that his party has a clear program and will change the country for the better.

"A government will be formed that will really work hard, that someone will manage and that will fulfill the program from the first moment," he said.

The country's current Prime Minister Petr Fiala, also chairman of the Civic Democratic Party in the Spolu alliance, acknowledged the victory of ANO. "I congratulate the winner of the elections, which is Andrej Babis."

The Pirate party's leader, Zdenek Hrib, declared that he would under no circumstances enter into a ruling coalition with ANO and certainly not with the SPD.

Instead, he indicated that his party could be a strong and vocal opposition.

The young Motorists for Themselves Party entered the Czech parliament ranking the sixth. The strong result positions the party as a potential junior partner in the upcoming government formation talks. The party's chairman Petr Macinka declared that "we are the only truly right-wing party and we want to keep an eye on Babis."

Katerina Konecna, the Stacilo! Movement's electoral leader, said it is clear that the left-wing party will not be represented in the new parliament.

She expressed her doubts whether a right-wing government will be able to solve the problems that bother the citizens of the Czech Republic. "We are not stopping. We are moving forward."

According to official data, the voter turnout was around 68.92 percent.

The Czech Statistical Office said in a statement that this year's voter turnout surpassed that from 2021, making it the highest since the parliamentary elections in 1998, when 74 percent of voters came to the polls.