Left wing parties win constitutional majority in Senate

Czech left-wing parties have secured a constitutional majority in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament. Elections took place in 27 constituencies in which the Social Democrats won 13 seats, the Communist Party won in one constituency and a candidate for the centre-left party of Citizens Rights of Milos Zeman also got one seat in the upper chamber. This brings the overall number of left-wing senators in the upper house to 49.

The second round of elections to the Senate was another crushing disappointment for the ruling Civic Democrats who entered the second round with 13 candidates but only won four seats, bringing the overall number of Civic Democrat senators to 15, the lowest ever. Prime Minister Petr Necas said the Civic Democrats should accept the defeat with humility and analyze its cause. He thanked voters for not strengthening the role of the Communists who went into the second round of elections with 12 candidates but only won 1 seat. The rest of the constituencies are divided among small parties and independents.