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Czech election: Opposition wins surprise majority
Two opposition alliances have narrowly defeated Prime Minister Andrej Babis's ANO party in the Czech parliamentary elections. The Pirates and Mayors grouping says they want to start talks on forming a government.
Spolu leader Petr Fiala celebrates winning the Czech election on Saturday
The Czech center-right and liberal opposition groups have won a majority in the lower house, narrowly defeating Prime Minister Andrej Babis' centrist ANO party in Saturday's parliamentary election.
The surprise development could spell the end of the populist billionaire's time in power.
What were the results?
Together, a liberal-conservative three-party Spolu coalition won 27.8% of the vote, while Pirates and Mayors, another opposition group, got 15.6%.
The two alliances have won a combined 108 seats in the 200-member lower house, according to the Czech Statistics Office.
The Pirates and Mayors coalition leader Ivan Bartos said they will begin talks on forming the next government.
The ruling ANO party, led by populist billionaire Babis, finished in second place, winning 27.1% of the vote, according to the latest results.
"Ano" means yes in the Czech language. Babis, a Euroskeptic, was hoping to secure a second term in office despite a turbulent first term with many scandals.
Babis concedes defeat
Billionnaire Babis finally accepted the results of the vote on Saturday night but not without first lashing out at his rivals.
"That's life, we understand and accept that," the 67-year-old said. But Babis accused the opposition of a "smear campaign" during the lead-up to the election.
Czech Prime Minister and founding leader of ANO Andrej Babis votes in the Czech elections
"The change is here, we are the change," said the conservative Spolu leading candidate, Petr Fiala.
But despite the surprise result from the 65% election turnout, more drama could still unfold as the winning coalition tries to form government.
President Milos Zeman has said a number of times he will only give the mandate to a single party and not to a coalition of different political groupings.
A presidential spokesman said Zeman has invited Babis to talk about his chances of continuing in office on Sunday morning.
At odds with the EU
Before Saturday's vote, Babis led a minority coalition government consisting of ANO and the Social Democrats, with the support of the Communists.
Throughout the campaign, Babis scapegoated asylum-seekers and refugees even though the Czech Republic is not home to very many. He also condemned the EU's climate change plans.
He has not ruled out forming a coalition with Freedom and Direct Democracy, a party that seeks an exit from the EU and hopes to hold a referendum on the country's NATO membership.
This week the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported that Babis placed over $20 million in shell companies to purchase 16 properties in France as part of its "Pandora Papers" reports.
ar/rc (AP, Reuters)
Two opposition alliances have narrowly defeated Prime Minister Andrej Babis's ANO party in the Czech parliamentary elections. The Pirates and Mayors grouping says they want to start talks on forming a government.
Spolu leader Petr Fiala celebrates winning the Czech election on Saturday
The Czech center-right and liberal opposition groups have won a majority in the lower house, narrowly defeating Prime Minister Andrej Babis' centrist ANO party in Saturday's parliamentary election.
The surprise development could spell the end of the populist billionaire's time in power.
What were the results?
Together, a liberal-conservative three-party Spolu coalition won 27.8% of the vote, while Pirates and Mayors, another opposition group, got 15.6%.
The two alliances have won a combined 108 seats in the 200-member lower house, according to the Czech Statistics Office.
The Pirates and Mayors coalition leader Ivan Bartos said they will begin talks on forming the next government.
The ruling ANO party, led by populist billionaire Babis, finished in second place, winning 27.1% of the vote, according to the latest results.
"Ano" means yes in the Czech language. Babis, a Euroskeptic, was hoping to secure a second term in office despite a turbulent first term with many scandals.
Babis concedes defeat
Billionnaire Babis finally accepted the results of the vote on Saturday night but not without first lashing out at his rivals.
"That's life, we understand and accept that," the 67-year-old said. But Babis accused the opposition of a "smear campaign" during the lead-up to the election.
Czech Prime Minister and founding leader of ANO Andrej Babis votes in the Czech elections
"The change is here, we are the change," said the conservative Spolu leading candidate, Petr Fiala.
But despite the surprise result from the 65% election turnout, more drama could still unfold as the winning coalition tries to form government.
President Milos Zeman has said a number of times he will only give the mandate to a single party and not to a coalition of different political groupings.
A presidential spokesman said Zeman has invited Babis to talk about his chances of continuing in office on Sunday morning.
At odds with the EU
Before Saturday's vote, Babis led a minority coalition government consisting of ANO and the Social Democrats, with the support of the Communists.
Throughout the campaign, Babis scapegoated asylum-seekers and refugees even though the Czech Republic is not home to very many. He also condemned the EU's climate change plans.
He has not ruled out forming a coalition with Freedom and Direct Democracy, a party that seeks an exit from the EU and hopes to hold a referendum on the country's NATO membership.
This week the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported that Babis placed over $20 million in shell companies to purchase 16 properties in France as part of its "Pandora Papers" reports.
ar/rc (AP, Reuters)
Czech Republic's Prime Minister and leader of centrist ANO (YES) movement Andrej Babis addresses the media after most of the votes were counted in the parliamentary elections, Prague, Czech Republic, October 9, 2021.
© Petr David Josek, AP
Text by: NEWS WIRES
Issued on: 09/10/2021 -
Prime Minister Andrej Babis' centrist party on Saturday narrowly lost the Czech Republic's parliamentary election, a surprise development that could mean the end of the populist billionaire's reign in power.
The two-day election to fill 200 seats in the lower house of the Czech Republic’s parliament took place shortly after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported details of Babis’ overseas financial dealings in a project dubbed the “Pandora Papers.” Babis, 67, has denied wrongdoing.
With almost all the the votes counted, the Czech Statistics Office said Together, a liberal-conservative three-party coalition, captured 27.8% of the vote, beating Babis' ANO (Yes) party, which won 27.1%.
In another blow to the populists, another center-left liberal coalition of the Pirate Party and STAN, a group of mayors, received 15.6% of the vote to finish third, the statistics office reported.
“The two democratic coalitions have gained a majority and have a chance to form a majority government,” said Petr Fiala, Together's leader and its candidate for prime minister.
Five opposition parties with policies closer to the European Union’s mainstream compared with the populist Babis put aside their differences in this election to create the two coalitions, seeking to oust the euroskeptic prime minister from power.
The result means “an absolute change of the politics in the Czech Republic,” analyst Michal Klima told Czech public television. “It stabilizes the country’s position in the West camp.”
“It’s a huge defeat for (Babis),” he added.
The major anti-migrant and anti-Muslim force in the Czech Republic, the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, finished fourth with 9.6% support.
Both the Social Democrats and the Communists, the country’s traditional parliamentary parties, failed to win seats in parliament for the first time since the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993.
Babis has had a turbulent term featuring numerous scandals, but all public polls before the vote had favored his ANO party to win the election.
“We didn't expect to lose,” Babis said. “We accept that.”
He still declared the election results “excellent.”
Prior to the vote, Babis led a minority coalition government of ANO and the Social Democrats in the Eastern European country of 10.7 million people, which is a member of both the European Union and NATO. He has also governed with the support of the maverick Communists.
The leader of the strongest party usually gets a chance to form a new government. President Milos Zeman didn't immediately comment but previously indicated that he will first appoint the leader of the winning party, not the winning coalition, to try to form a new government, which would be Babis. The two leaders will meet on Sunday.
“We're the strongest party,” Babis said. “If the president asks me to create a government, I'll open the negotiations about it.”
Any new government has to win a parliamentary confidence vote to rule, however, and Babis and his potential partner, the Freedom party, don't have enough support for that.
Czech voters oust communists from parliament for first time since 1948
Michael Kahn and Robert Muller
Sat, October 9, 2021, 1:39 PM·2 min read
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech voters evicted the communists from parliament on Saturday for the first time since the end of World War Two, voting out a party whose forebears ruled the central European nation from 1948 until the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ushered in democracy.
The communists jailed tens of thousands in forced labor camps in the 1950s and brutally repressed dissidents such as playwright-turned-president Vaclav Havel, but remained in parliament following the revolution.
In this week's election https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/czechs-vote-final-day-election-pm-babis-seeks-cling-power-2021-10-08, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia took 3.62% of the votes with nearly all precincts reporting, less than the 5% needed to enter parliament and potentially marking a final chapter for a party that has gradually shrunk as its ageing membership dwindled.
"It pleases me, it pleases me a lot," Jiri Gruntorad, 69, a former dissident who signed the dissident Charter 77 statement and was jailed for subversion from 1981 to 1985 by the communist authorities, told Reuters. "But it's coming too late."
"It was one of the last communist parties in the world apart from the Chinese and Cuban ones that held on to its name. The others have at least renamed themselves and started behaving a little differently."
Voters also handed a defeat to Prime Minister Andrej Babis' ANO party against centre-right opposition group Together in a surprise result.
After 1989, the communists sought to appeal to senior citizens and working class Czechs but they never resonated with younger voters and failed to shake the party's history with others as a totalitarian rulers who had stifled freedom.
"I am very disappointed because it is a really big failure," said Communist Party leader Vojtech Filip, who also resigned.
POST-1989
Havel opposed banning the party -- which resisted the country's European Union and NATO membership and kept warm ties with Russia and China -- despite calls from the public to do so.
The communists lingered mostly in isolation after 1989, though they cooperated with other parties seeking votes to pass legislation in parliament. They were also close to current President Milos Zeman.
The party regained influence in 2018 when Babis -- a former Communist Party member -- leaned on them to support his minority government with the Social Democrats.
It was the closest the party came to power since 1989 but appears also to represent their final act as a political force in the former Soviet-bloc nation.
"I am overjoyed that this era is now over – not only for those of us still living, but also for those who have passed away and who were persecuted by the regime,” said Hana Palcova, 74, who left the country under threat from the secret police.
(Writing by Michael Kahn; Additional reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Mike Harrison)
Prime Minister Andrej Babis' centrist party on Saturday narrowly lost the Czech Republic's parliamentary election, a surprise development that could mean the end of the populist billionaire's reign in power.
The two-day election to fill 200 seats in the lower house of the Czech Republic’s parliament took place shortly after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported details of Babis’ overseas financial dealings in a project dubbed the “Pandora Papers.” Babis, 67, has denied wrongdoing.
With almost all the the votes counted, the Czech Statistics Office said Together, a liberal-conservative three-party coalition, captured 27.8% of the vote, beating Babis' ANO (Yes) party, which won 27.1%.
In another blow to the populists, another center-left liberal coalition of the Pirate Party and STAN, a group of mayors, received 15.6% of the vote to finish third, the statistics office reported.
“The two democratic coalitions have gained a majority and have a chance to form a majority government,” said Petr Fiala, Together's leader and its candidate for prime minister.
Five opposition parties with policies closer to the European Union’s mainstream compared with the populist Babis put aside their differences in this election to create the two coalitions, seeking to oust the euroskeptic prime minister from power.
The result means “an absolute change of the politics in the Czech Republic,” analyst Michal Klima told Czech public television. “It stabilizes the country’s position in the West camp.”
“It’s a huge defeat for (Babis),” he added.
The major anti-migrant and anti-Muslim force in the Czech Republic, the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, finished fourth with 9.6% support.
Both the Social Democrats and the Communists, the country’s traditional parliamentary parties, failed to win seats in parliament for the first time since the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993.
Babis has had a turbulent term featuring numerous scandals, but all public polls before the vote had favored his ANO party to win the election.
“We didn't expect to lose,” Babis said. “We accept that.”
He still declared the election results “excellent.”
Prior to the vote, Babis led a minority coalition government of ANO and the Social Democrats in the Eastern European country of 10.7 million people, which is a member of both the European Union and NATO. He has also governed with the support of the maverick Communists.
The leader of the strongest party usually gets a chance to form a new government. President Milos Zeman didn't immediately comment but previously indicated that he will first appoint the leader of the winning party, not the winning coalition, to try to form a new government, which would be Babis. The two leaders will meet on Sunday.
“We're the strongest party,” Babis said. “If the president asks me to create a government, I'll open the negotiations about it.”
Any new government has to win a parliamentary confidence vote to rule, however, and Babis and his potential partner, the Freedom party, don't have enough support for that.
Czech voters oust communists from parliament for first time since 1948
Michael Kahn and Robert Muller
Sat, October 9, 2021, 1:39 PM·2 min read
PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech voters evicted the communists from parliament on Saturday for the first time since the end of World War Two, voting out a party whose forebears ruled the central European nation from 1948 until the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ushered in democracy.
The communists jailed tens of thousands in forced labor camps in the 1950s and brutally repressed dissidents such as playwright-turned-president Vaclav Havel, but remained in parliament following the revolution.
In this week's election https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/czechs-vote-final-day-election-pm-babis-seeks-cling-power-2021-10-08, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia took 3.62% of the votes with nearly all precincts reporting, less than the 5% needed to enter parliament and potentially marking a final chapter for a party that has gradually shrunk as its ageing membership dwindled.
"It pleases me, it pleases me a lot," Jiri Gruntorad, 69, a former dissident who signed the dissident Charter 77 statement and was jailed for subversion from 1981 to 1985 by the communist authorities, told Reuters. "But it's coming too late."
"It was one of the last communist parties in the world apart from the Chinese and Cuban ones that held on to its name. The others have at least renamed themselves and started behaving a little differently."
Voters also handed a defeat to Prime Minister Andrej Babis' ANO party against centre-right opposition group Together in a surprise result.
After 1989, the communists sought to appeal to senior citizens and working class Czechs but they never resonated with younger voters and failed to shake the party's history with others as a totalitarian rulers who had stifled freedom.
"I am very disappointed because it is a really big failure," said Communist Party leader Vojtech Filip, who also resigned.
POST-1989
Havel opposed banning the party -- which resisted the country's European Union and NATO membership and kept warm ties with Russia and China -- despite calls from the public to do so.
The communists lingered mostly in isolation after 1989, though they cooperated with other parties seeking votes to pass legislation in parliament. They were also close to current President Milos Zeman.
The party regained influence in 2018 when Babis -- a former Communist Party member -- leaned on them to support his minority government with the Social Democrats.
It was the closest the party came to power since 1989 but appears also to represent their final act as a political force in the former Soviet-bloc nation.
"I am overjoyed that this era is now over – not only for those of us still living, but also for those who have passed away and who were persecuted by the regime,” said Hana Palcova, 74, who left the country under threat from the secret police.
(Writing by Michael Kahn; Additional reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Mike Harrison)
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