Babiš claims huge shortfalls in 2026 budget draft

Likely next prime minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) says that next year’s budget, prepared by the outgoing government, is missing over CZK 85 billion (EUR 3.5 billion) in spending and includes CZK 15 billion (EUR 620 million) in “inflated” or non-existent revenue. He made the claims in a video posted on social media on Sunday. The outgoing government has rejected the criticism.

ANO deputy chair Alena Schillerová said earlier last week that the draft budget lacks CZK 38 billion (EUR 1.6 billion) for transport infrastructure and CZK 32 billion (EUR 1.3 billion) for legally required expenses. Babiš claims the outgoing government is avoiding resubmitting the budget to parliament to conceal these gaps, while outgoing Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democratic Party) responded on X that Babiš is deflecting attention from the fact that ANO has no budget draft of its own and will need a large deficit to fund its “unrealistic election promises.”