In the Czech parliamentary elections held on October 3–4, 26 parties and political groupings took part. However, according to pre-election polling, only six or seven of them had a realistic chance of clearing the five-percent threshold.
Pollsters had identified the right-wing populist opposition movement ANO, led by Andrej Babis, as the frontrunner. Those projections were borne out: according to figures released on Saturday evening, ANO received 34.6% of the vote.
The liberal party coalition SPOLU (“Together”), which had been in power until now, came second with 23.3%. Their partners in the cabinet, the STAN movement (“Mayors and Independents”), won 11.2%.
Three more political forces also entered the new parliament. The liberal and pro-European Czech Pirate Party gained 8.9%, the anti-immigration and Eurosceptic movement SPD (“Freedom and Direct Democracy”) received 7.8%, and the right-wing populist movement Motoristé sobě (“Motorists for Themselves”) took 6.8%.
As a result, no party crossed the 50% mark. This means the next Czech government will be a coalition one. That coalition may take the form of either a formal governing alliance or an informal arrangement between political forces.