ANO party’s landslide victory in regional elections wake-up call for ruling coalition
The opposition ANO party is celebrating a landslide victory in Czechia's regional elections. Commentators have described it as "a debacle" for the ruling parties.
The opposition ANO party has won a landslide victory in the 2024 regional elections, winning by a big margin in the vast majority of the 13 regions where voting took place. The only regions where the opposition party was beaten was in South Bohemia where the most votes went to the ruling Civic Democratic Party, the South Moravian Region were the victory went to the coalition SPOLU of Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and TOP 09 and the Liberec Region where ANO was narrowly beaten by Mayors for Liberec.
The big surprise in these elections was ANO’s dominant position in Central Bohemia which was expected to go to the ruling parties and the dismal showing of the Pirate Party of the ruling coalition.
Despite its convincing victory in most regions, the opposition ANO party of former prime minister Andrej Babiš, may have problems putting together ruling coalitions in some regions, where it could be ostracized by liberal democratic parties. It will be able to rule alone in three regions.
The results are a wake-up call for the government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, which has a record low popularity rating, ahead of next year’s general elections.
Commentartors have described the elections as "a debacle" for the ruling parties, who will now have to re-think their strategy for the 2025 general elections.
Most candidates heading for second round of Senate elections
Five senators were elected in the first round of elections, the most since the establishment of the upper house of Parliament.
They are: Jiří Čunek (Christian Democrats) who defended his mandate in the Vsetín region, Petr Vícha (Social Democrats) in the Karviná region and Pavel Fischer (TOP 09) in Prague 12. Jana Mračková Vildumetzová was elected senator for Sokolov and Martin Bednář (ANO) for Ostrava, who defeated the incumbent senator Leopold Sulovský.
The two strongest candidates who got under 50 percent of votes will take part in run-off elections next weekend.
ANO leader Andrej Babiš says election result "phenomenal success"
ANO party leader Andrej Babiš has hailed his party's victory in the regions as "a phenomenal success". He gave the lion's share of the credit to party deputy leader Karel Havlíček, who actively helped campaigning particularly in Central Bohemia where the party won an unexpected and convincing victory.
PM reserved on election outcome, Pirate Party leader ready to resign
Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who heads the Civic Democrats, gave reporters a reserved stand on the election results, saying that a victory of the opposition ANO party was predictable in regional elections and highlighted the success of his party in South Bohemia and South Moravia.
TOP 09 leader Markéta Pekarová Adamová said it was too soon to analyze the outcome of the elections, hinting at ANO’s low coalition potential which could lower its chances of forming coalitions in some regions.
Pirate Party leader Ivan Bartoš has said that in view of the party’s dismal showing in the regional elections the party leadership will offer its resignation at an upcoming party conference which is expected to analyze the reasons for the party’s poor showing. He expressed disappointment with the outcome of the vote, saying that Pirate councilors in the regions had done a lot of good work. The party leader himself has been under fire in recent weeks over the bungled digitization of the construction permits system.
