Andrej Babis, the 'Czech Trump', wins election

The populist billionaire Andrej Babis has seen parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic. His movement 'Action of Disgruntled Citizens' (acronym in Czech: Ano) is the leading party: according to the almost final results, after counting 99% of the constituencies, his party obtained almost 35% of the votes, according to data released by the Statistical Office.

The centre-right, Spolu, pro-Western coalition led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala collapsed to 23%. Stan's Liberals got just under 11%. The pro-Western coalition had defeated him in the 2021 elections.

The victory of former Prime Minister Babis (from 2017 to 2021) marks a political comeback that moves the country away from support for Ukraine and closer to Hungary and Slovakia, which have taken a pro-Russian path. He will have to ally with minor parties to form a government.

Populist, maverick and billionaire, Babis, dubbed the 'Czech Trump', agricultural tycoon, is a political chameleon, and is the leader of the party, 'Ano' described as left-wing or populist, technocratic or all-embracing, conservative or far-right, depending on how the wind is blowing. Political scientist Petr Kaniok from Masaryk University in Brno confirms that Babis' future governance could follow the illiberal model of Orban's Hungary or be inspired by Robert Fico's Slovakia. "The Ano movement is very flexible. And it is precisely because of this flexibility that it can change its position. We have seen that Babis himself has no problem contradicting something he has previously said or even approved,' Kaniok said.

Like Trump, Babis is counting on support for right-wing populists coming from former industrial centres. Which in the Czech Republic were strongholds of the Czechoslovak communists and then the social democrats after the Velvet Revolution of 1989, but in recent years have moved towards Ano. According to experts, Babis could revive a Eurosceptic government and reduce military aid to Ukraine, aligning the Czech Republic with the nationalist policies of Hungary and Slovakia, both linked to Russia, rather than pursue a 'Czexit' from any multilateral international organisation. Moreover, last year Babis had founded, together with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the 'Patriots for Europe', a right-wing group in the European Parliament.