{"id":436672,"date":"2025-10-01T19:24:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/10\/01\/elezioni-cechia-lo-spettro-di-andrej-babis-preoccupa-lue-e-lucraina\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T20:07:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:07:30","slug":"czech-elections-spectre-of-andrej-babis-worries-eu-and-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/10\/01\/czech-elections-spectre-of-andrej-babis-worries-eu-and-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Czech elections, spectre of Andrej Babi\u0161 worries EU (and Ukraine)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – All EU chancelleries will have their eyes fixed on the Czech Republic<\/strong> next 3 and 4 October, to follow with bated breath the parliamentary elections<\/strong> that could bring back into power Andrej Babi\u0161<\/strong>, the populist and eurosceptic leader who winks at Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> and could put quite a few sticks in the wheels of EU foreign policy, especially on the Ukrainian dossier<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

On Friday and Saturday, Czech voters will be called to the polls to elect the Chamber of Deputies, the 200-member lower house of the Prague legislature (where the absolute majority threshold is set at 101),<\/span> for another four-year term. The outgoing legislature, the ninth, was formed in October 2021 and saw the formation of a centre-right coalition government<\/strong> between the Spolu<\/strong> (‘Together’) tripartite alliance\u2014led by Premier Petr Fiala<\/strong>, ally of Giorgia Meloni<\/strong> in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)\u2014and the liberal party of Mayors and Independents (STAN<\/strong>). <\/p>\n

However, polls suggest the comeback of Andrej Babi\u0161<\/strong>, a 71-year-old billionaire who, at the head of the right-wing<\/strong> populist party ANO<\/strong> (an acronym for “Action of Dissatisfied Citizens”), has already ruled the central European country from 2017 to 2021. Babi\u0161, nicknamed “the Czech<\/strong> Trump”<\/strong> for his political affinity with the US president, describes himself as a fervent patriot<\/strong> and harshly criticises European aid to Ukraine<\/strong> against Russian aggression (including the so-called “Czech initiative”, with which Fiala has secured over 2.5 million artillery shells for Kyiv in the past year) as well as the Green deal<\/strong> and the Migration policies of Brussels<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Andrej<\/a>
Former Czech Prime Minister and ANO leader Andrej Babi\u0161 (photo: Benvegn\u00f9 Guaitoli via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

In the European Parliament in Strasbourg, ANO shares the benches with Fidesz (the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>) in the Patriots for Europe <\/strong>(PfE), a radical right-wing group that also hosts, among others, Matteo Salvini<\/strong>‘s Lega and Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National<\/span>. The strongman from Budapest renewed just today (1 October) from Copenhagen\u2014where he is attending the double summit (Informal European Council<\/strong>, today, and European Political Community<\/strong>, tomorrow) taking place in the Danish capital on high alert<\/a><\/em> for fear of drone attacks from the sky\u2014his own endorsement for his sovereignist colleague. <\/p>\n

According to the projections, ANO is hovering around 30 per cent<\/strong> of the vote, trailing the Fiala alliance<\/strong>, which is close to 20 per cent<\/strong>, by a good ten points. Babi\u0161’s party had also come first in the 2024 European elections, with over 26 per cent of the vote. <\/p>\n

The main themes of the election campaign have been the economic ones, with the cost of living<\/strong>, inflation<\/strong>, and energy prices<\/strong> topping the list of topics favoured by political forces. Contrary to ANO’s typically populist recipes, Spolu proposes to continue on the austerity path<\/strong> already taken in recent years (during which Prague’s public deficit fell from 5 to 2 GDP points, while at the same time discontent with the government<\/strong> increased) and to strengthen the armed forces<\/strong> to protect the country from Russian aggression.<\/p>\n

However, according to the surveys, no party will obtain an absolute majority<\/strong> of seats in the hemicycle on its own. In the aftermath of the vote, therefore, a chapter of intense negotiations for the formation of a new coalition executive<\/strong> will open, regardless of the poll results. <\/p>\n

A possible configuration could see ANO allying with smaller parties<\/strong>,<\/strong> such as the ultra-right-wing Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD<\/strong>, polling at over 12 per cent), the radical and pro-Russian left-wing front Sta\u010dilo<\/strong> (‘Enough’), or the newly formed Motorists’ Party (Auto<\/strong>), polling <\/span>between 5 and 7 per cent. These would, in any case, be numerically unstable combinations<\/strong>, the geometry of which would probably vary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Petr<\/a>
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/em>Alternatively, Spolu could try again for a three-way coalition<\/strong> with STAN<\/strong> and the Pirates<\/strong>, another centrist and pro-European party that left the government last year. These two formations are credited with 11 and 9 per cent<\/strong> of the vote, respectively, so a new alliance between them (if the polls are confirmed) might have a better chance of gaining the confidence of the House. <\/p>\n

Whatever actors are involved in the future negotiations, however, a central role will be played by the President of the Republic, Petr Pavel<\/strong>, an independent elected in 2023. The head of state recently stated that he would refuse to accept the appointment<\/strong> of ministers who support the country’s<\/strong> exit from the EU or NATO<\/strong> (a cross-party claim on both the left and right), nor would he accept like-minded parliamentarians in key positions related to security or foreign policy. <\/p>\n

Indeed, there is more than just a government at stake. Babi\u0161’s return to power could have significant implications for Prague’s<\/strong> international positioning<\/strong>, potentially leading to a geopolitical realignment that moves it further away from Brussels and closer to Moscow<\/strong>. Led by a coalition with strong national-populist traction, the Czech Republic could join Hungary and Slovakia in systematically obstructing support for Ukrainian resistance<\/strong> and blocking Kyiv’s<\/strong> path to membership<\/strong> in the European Union<\/span>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The polls (open Friday and Saturday) could sanction the return to government of the national-populist billionaire allied with Viktor Orb\u00e1n, former premier from 2017 to 2021. Hostile to Western support for Kyiv, the ANO leader would further crack the unity of the Twenty-Seven in foreign policy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":436664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[27835,32237,32238,31521,27836,32239,32240,30781],"class_list":["post-436672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-andrej-babis-en","tag-ano-en","tag-elezioni-cechia-2025-en","tag-nato-en-10","tag-petr-fiala-en","tag-spolu-en","tag-stan-en","tag-ukraine-in-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436673,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436672\/revisions\/436673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}