Czech Vote Checks Babiš’s Momentum

ANO enters numerous Senate run-offs, but opposition and regional candidates retain important ground

Completed results from the Czech Republic’s municipal elections and first-round Senate vote have delivered a mixed verdict for Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. His ANO movement advanced candidates across the country, but won no Senate seat outright, while opposition and regional figures secured five victories before the decisive run-offs.

PRAGUE — ANO remains a powerful national force after the Czech elections, but the result offers no simple story of political dominance. The governing movement performed strongly enough to contest numerous Senate seats on 16 and 17 October, while encountering resilient local alliances and established opposition candidates in major cities and regional contests.

Five candidates crossed the 50% threshold required to enter the Senate in the first round, according to the completed election count. They were Christian Democratic leader Jan Grolich, Tomáš Fiala of the regional Naše Česko movement, STAN candidates Jan Sobotka and Zbyněk Linhart, and TOP 09 candidate Jan Grulich.

None represented ANO. The movement nevertheless qualified candidates for run-offs in constituencies including Cheb, Česká Lípa, Karviná, Kolín, Louny, Ostrava, Plzeň, Přerov, Příbram and Znojmo.

A strong party without a clean sweep

Babiš described ANO as the country’s strongest political force. The results give him grounds to make that argument, particularly where the movement reached the second round or led negotiations over municipal administrations.

Yet the local picture was fragmented. Independent municipal lists collectively secured the largest number of council seats, continuing a Czech tradition in which local personalities and coalitions often matter more than national party labels.

ANO performed well in several regional capitals, including Ostrava, Olomouc, Plzeň and Karlovy Vary. Elsewhere, however, potential governing coalitions began forming without it. In Brno, parties including the Christian Democrats, STAN, ODS and TOP 09 moved towards an administration that would leave ANO as the sole opposition group.

In Prague, STAN finished ahead of its rivals and began discussions with the Spolu alliance, Praha Sobě and the Pirates. ANO placed fourth in the capital. The movement also suffered a narrow defeat in Havířov, previously considered one of its local strongholds.

These differences matter because municipal elections distribute authority among thousands of councillors rather than producing a single national government. A party can increase its representation while still being excluded from office if other groups assemble workable local majorities.

Why the Senate contests matter

The lower Chamber of Deputies remains the dominant arena for ordinary legislation, but the 81-member Senate is more than a symbolic chamber. One-third of its seats are contested every two years, creating continuity that can moderate sudden political shifts.

According to the Senate’s official description of its constitutional powers, senators review legislation, approve international treaties and consent to Constitutional Court appointments. Constitutional and electoral laws require approval from both parliamentary chambers in the same form.

The Senate cannot be dissolved. It may also adopt urgent legislative measures when the lower house has been dissolved, although those measures subsequently require approval from newly elected deputies.

That institutional role gives the run-offs significance beyond party arithmetic. Greater representation would give ANO additional influence over legislation and national appointments, but the first-round victories by opposition and regional candidates suggest that the existing balance will not be easily overturned.

A wider Central European dimension

The vote comes as Czech politics intersects with broader European disputes over security, energy, Ukraine and the distribution of authority between national governments and EU institutions.

Czechia recently participated in the launch meeting of the Carpathian Eight regional forum, which seeks closer cooperation between Ukraine and neighbouring European states on infrastructure, energy resilience and EU integration. Czechia’s precise commitments under that initiative remained unclear, illustrating how domestic political choices can shape the country’s regional role.

The Senate can scrutinise proposed EU legislation, consider whether European measures respect the principle of subsidiarity and approve important international agreements. Its composition therefore affects how the Czech Republic approaches European cooperation, even when foreign policy is principally directed by the government.

The decision moves to the run-offs

The first round revealed two competing realities. ANO has the organisational reach to compete across much of the country, but Czech voters continue to support a diverse field of local, regional and opposition candidates.

The run-offs will now determine whether ANO can convert its broad presence into Senate seats. Second-round contests can be unpredictable because defeated parties frequently unite behind whichever remaining candidate is best placed to stop a rival.

Until those votes are counted, claims of a decisive national mandate remain premature. The completed first round shows political momentum for Babiš, but also the persistence of the institutional and local counterweights that make Czech politics more plural than any single party’s result suggests.