Author: Khatia Davlianidze, UGSPN Research Fellow
Parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic on October 3-4, in which former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s party ANO won the majority of votes (35%), while the pro-European, Ukraine-supporting ruling center-right alliance SPOLU came in second. It is noteworthy that ANO achieved its best-ever result since its founding in these 2025 elections. 2013: 47 seats; 2017: 78 seats; 2021: 72 seats; 2025: 80 seats.
Voter turnout reached 68.95%, the highest since 1998. One of the main reasons for this high turnout was the possibility for Czechs living abroad to participate in the elections via email voting.
In the 200-member Chamber of Deputies, seats were distributed as follows:
- ANO – 34.5% – 80 seats;
- SPOLU – 23.4% – 52 seats;
- STAN – 11.2% – 22 seats;
- Pirates – 9% – 18 seats;
- SPD – 7.8% – 15 seats;
- AUTO – 6.8% – 13 seats.
The far-left, pro-Russian party “Stačilo!”, which had shown 7-8% support in pre-election polls, failed to cross the 5% electoral threshold and remained outside the legislature.
With Andrej Babiš’s victory, the team of populist leaders of the Visegrád countries – including Viktor Orbán, Robert Fico, and Karol Nawrocki – has gained another member.
It is noteworthy that shortly before the elections, „Online Risk Labs“discoveredanetwork of hundreds of interconnected accounts on the social media platform TikTokthat were amplifying pro-Russian and anti-government narratives and supporting candidates from radical political parties.
Who is Andrej Babiš?
Billionaire businessman Andrej Babiš, who constantly tries to cast himself as a representative of the poor and the oppressed, grew up in a family that belonged to the influential elite of communist Czechoslovakia.
Fighting against the “system” and the political establishment, Babiš founded the political movement ANO in 2011 and served as finance minister from 2014 to 2017 and as prime minister from 2017 to 2021. During his time in power, he became embroiled in numerous corruption and political scandals. He is currently awaiting a court verdict – the former prime minister is accused of using €2 million in European Union funds to benefit his agricultural conglomerate, Agrofert.
The question of a conflict of interest related to Agrofert remains under scrutiny. Under Czech law, it is prohibited for officeholders to own or control a business that calls their governing role into question. In one television debate, Babiš said he would “resolve the conflict of interest,” but did not specify how.
Notably, beyond the Agrofert-related allegations, the scandals also concern his alleged activities in the secret service of communist Czechoslovakia. According to reports, Andrej Babiš worked as an agent of the Czechoslovak secret service StB under the codename “Bureš,” which Babiš himself denies. This issue has been the subject of legal disputes between him and the Slovak government on multiple occasions.
The ANO party promises voters lower natural gas prices, higher wages, and reductions in corporate taxes. It also openly opposes the “Green Deal,” Czech military aid to Ukraine, and increases in the defense budget in line with NATO’s new goals.
Babiš wants to cancel the so-called “Czech Initiative” launched in 2024. Under that program, artillery ammunition is sourced, purchased and transferred worldwide for delivery to Ukraine. Babiš has repeatedly criticized the Czech Initiative for a lack of transparency; it is likely that future deliveries of munitions would be carried out in a different format.
“If we are in government, we will tell Czech weapons manufacturers: Do you want to export weapons to Ukraine? We have no problem with that. We will not give Ukraine a single CZK for weapons… We have no money for the Czech Republic… Assistance should be provided by the European Union“, – Andrej Babiš.
Who will form the government?
To form a government in the 200-member Chamber of Deputies, a party or coalition must hold at least 101 seats; therefore, no single political party can form a government independently.
Traditionally, the president entrusts the formation of the government to the leader of the winning party. Once a political grouping secures a majority of 101 members through negotiations, the president nominates a candidate for prime minister and a cabinet of ministers, who must then receive a vote of confidence from the legislature.
Negotiations for the formation of a coalition government began shortly after the elections. From the outset, Andrej Babiš stated that he would not cooperate with SPOLU, the Pirates, or STAN and intends to form a coalition together with SPD and AUTO.
The Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party is an ultra-right, anti-immigration party whose leader, despite being of Japanese origin, positions himself as a Czech nationalist politician and has long called for a referendum on the Czech Republic’s withdrawal from the EU and NATO. AUTO is a right-wing, Eurosceptic political grouping that openly opposes the Green Deal, the EU’s migration policies, and military aid to Ukraine.
Although it took Babiš eight months in 2017 to persuade the Social Democratic Party to form a coalition, he is optimistic this time.
According to reports, half of the future cabinet – including the ministries of Finance, Justice, Interior, Education, Industry, and Health – will be composed of ANO members. The chair of the legislature will be held by Tomio Okamura, leader of SPD, while the ministries of Defense, Agriculture, and Transport will be headed by non-partisan experts. Members of AUTO will lead the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture, and Environmental Protection.
What can we expect?
It is highly unlikely that Andrej Babiš will radically change the Czech Republic’s pro-European course, as the majority of his business activities are concentrated within the European Union, which encourages him to avoid open confrontation with Brussels.
The role of the Czech president is particularly important – Petr Pavel, who has the authority to appoint the prime minister, has stated that he will not approve a government that includes extremists opposed to NATO and the EU. In addition, Babiš has openly declared that ANO will not support any steps toward leaving NATO or the EU.
It is likely that he will continue to criticize EU policies on various issues, including climate, aid to Ukraine, migration, and asylum, but Babiš is a pragmatic politician who, unlike Viktor Orbán or Robert Fico, is expected to act with far more caution and restraint due to his business interests.