{"id":191414,"date":"2025-10-05T13:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/191414\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T13:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T13:54:09","slug":"populist-billionaire-andrej-babis-wins-czech-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/191414\/","title":{"rendered":"Populist billionaire Andrej Babis wins Czech election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Chairman of opposition movement Andrej Babis reacts as he arrives at his election headquarters in Prague on Saturday. Babis’ movement won 80 of 200 parliamentary seats.Petr David Josek\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Billionaire Andrej Babi\u0161 became another populist leader in Central Europe to stage a political comeback by winning big in the Czech Republic\u2019s parliamentary election, according to nearly complete results Saturday.<\/p>\n

That result could steer the country away from supporting Ukraine and toward Hungary and Slovakia, which have taken a pro-Russian path.<\/p>\n

With the results of 99.5 per cent of the polling stations counted by the Statistics Office, Babi\u0161\u2019 ANO (YES) movement captured 34.7 per cent of the vote, soundly beating the Together conservative coalition of Prime Minister Petr Fiala that received 23.2 per cent.<\/p>\n

Babi\u0161 was jubilant after his best electoral result, calling it \u201chistoric\u201d for himself and his \u201ccatch-all\u201d political group since it stormed into national politics in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the Czech Republic to become the best place for life in the European Union and we will do everything to make it happen,\u201d he told his supporters and media.<\/p>\n

With the victory, Babi\u0161 would join the ranks of Prime Ministers Viktor Orb\u00e1n of Hungary and Robert Fico of Slovakia, whose countries have refused to provide military aid to Ukraine, continue to import Russian oil and oppose European Union sanctions on Russia.<\/p>\n

The Czech Republic has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The country has donated arms, including heavy weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces and is behind an initiative that acquires artillery shells Ukraine badly needs from countries outside the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t like it,\u201d Babi\u0161 said about that internationally recognized initiative. \u201cWe have a different view of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The opposition led by Babi\u0161 blamed Fiala for all the troubles of recent years, from the energy crisis to soaring inflation, and pledged to revoke his pension reform and help for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Fiala congratulated him, saying the result was clear and \u201cit\u2019s necessary to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His campaign focused on security amid the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

A group of mayors known as STAN, also a member of Fiala\u2019s government, had 11.1 per cent of the vote, with another ally of Fiala, the Pirates party, reaching 8.7 per cent.<\/p>\n

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 collected 6.8 per cent.<\/p>\n

Babi\u0161 said his aim was to form a one-party government and he will have to seek tolerance from the two groups.<\/p>\n

The two-day election filled 200 seats in the lower house of the Czech parliament. Babi\u0161 won 80 seats, the Freedom Party has 15 and the Motorists 13. The Together coalition won 52.<\/p>\n

He joined forces with his friend Orb\u00e1n last year to create a new alliance in the European Parliament, the \u201cPatriots for Europe,\u201d to represent hard-right groups, a significant shift from the liberal Renew group that Babi\u0161 previously belonged to.<\/p>\n

The Patriots are united by anti-migrant rhetoric, a critical stance toward EU policies tackling climate change, and the protection of national sovereignty.<\/p>\n

The Motorists, who are backed by former EU-skeptic President V\u00e1clav Klaus, share the views while the Freedom party wants to lead the country out of the EU and NATO and plans to expel almost all of some 380,000 Ukrainian refugees from the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re clearly pro-European and pro-NATO,\u201d Babi\u0161 still declared after the victory.<\/p>\n

President Petr Pavel is scheduled to meet with Babi\u0161 and other party leaders on Sunday. The head of the strongest political force usually gets a chance from the president to form a new government.<\/p>\n

If he wants to govern alone, his minority Cabinet would need at least tacit support from the Freedom party and the Motorists to win a mandatory parliamentary confidence vote to rule.<\/p>\n

The result was a fiasco for a coalition of four far-left fringe parties led by the maverick Communists who are openly pro-Russian and failed to win a seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Chairman of opposition movement Andrej Babis reacts as he arrives at his election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-191414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}