The opposition wins the Czech legislative elections and could displace Prime Minister Babis

The opposition coalition SPOLU has won by a narrow margin in the legislative elections held between Friday and Saturday in the Czech Republic with 27.24 percent and could displace the Alliance of Discontented Citizens (ANO) party of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis .

The change we promised is here. And we will achieve it, “Petr Fiala, leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), said at a press conference after the results were known.

Babis’s ANO achieved 27.24 percent of the vote, according to official data after 99.36 percent of constituencies were counted, but ANO’s coalition partner, the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), has remained without parliamentary representation as it does not reach the minimum 5 percent according to the Czech electoral law.

Babis has appeared at a press conference and has expressed his willingness to try to form a government. “If the president entrusts me with the formation of a government, I will address the SPOLU coalition ,” said Babis.

Behind Babis’ party are Pirates-Mayors and Independents, which obtains 15.50 percent of the vote, and the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, the fourth most voted proposal with 9.61 percent. The rest of the formations do not reach the minimum 5 percent to obtain representation. The participation has been 65.05 percent of the census.

The departure of Parliament from the CSSD represents a historic setback for the formation, as it is left without legislative representation for the first time in the history of the independent Czech Republic. The president of the Social Democrats, Jan Hamácek , will resign from the position.

With these data, Babis’s party could try to agree to continue in power, but it is most likely that the opposition will reach an understanding to govern.

The leaders of the Pirate Party and of Mayors and Independents, Ivan Bartos and Vít Rakusan, have already shown their willingness to negotiate with ODS.

Furthermore, these results imply that neither Social Democrats nor Communists will be in Parliament for the first time in 30 years and there will be 29 women in the House, ten more, which is now a quarter of the total.