News

Social Democrats gain most votes but centre and centre-right parties get majority of seats in lower house. The final elections results gave the left of centre Social Democrats most votes with 22.08 percent followed by the Civic Democrats on 20.22 percent, according to the Czech Statistical Office. The recently created TOP 09 party was third with 16.7 percent followed by the Communists with 11.27 percent and the Public Affairs party with 10.88 percent. The Christian Democrats and the party of former Social Democrat prime minister Miloš Zeman were both just under the 5.0 percent threshold to entry to the lower house with around 4.5 percent. The turnout was 62.6 percent.

These figures translate into 56 seats in the 200-seat lower house for the Social Democrats. The Civic Democrats would gain 53 seats, TOP 09 41 seats, the Communists 26 seats and Public Affairs 24 seats. The Social Democrats won most votes in most regions of the country apart from the Liberec, Hradec Králové, Southern Bohemia and Central Czech regions won by the Civic Democrats. TOP 09 was the most popular party in the former Civic Democrat bastion, Prague, with around 27 percent of support.

Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek announced he would stand down as party leader within 10 days following disappointing election results. He said the decision was a personal one and the party needed a new start. Mr. Paroubek said the Czech people had made their decision about which way the country should go and he respected it. He added that the election result was a defeat for the party but also, more importantly, a defeat for ordinary people. The party would have to analyse in the coming days why the final results were so at odds with the pre-election opinion polls which consistently showed the party as a clear election winner. The party would be run by its deputy chairman ahead of a final decision about who the new leader would be, he added. The final result represented a collapse in support since the last elections in 2006 when they gained around 32 percent. The resignation might improve the party's slim chances of taking part in a government.

New parties TOP 09 and Public Affairs appear to have re-written the Czech political map after strong results. Together they are expected to have just under a third of seats in the lower house and a clear role in forming a future coalition. TOP 09 leader Karel Schwarzenberg said the election result was a rejection of demagogy and extremism. His deputy Miroslav Kalousek, said the result was “phenomenal” for a party that was created only a year ago. Public Affairs leader Radek John said the predicted result was a damning verdict on the Social Democrat leader and on the major parties.

President Klaus said the preliminary election results showed a clear weakening of the two main parties, the Social Democrats and Civic Democrats. That was an evident conclusion to draw from them, he added. The Czech president said that weakening had been expected before the election and was not a complete surprise. He refused to be drawn on the format of a future government saying that all the results needed to come in.