Babiš Wins Czech Elections, Puts Spotlight on Ukraine Funding Debate
Populist Babiš won the Czech parliamentary elections, during which he criticized state budget spending on support for Ukraine.
The Gaze reports on it, referring to European Pravda and Suspilne.
The final results of the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic have been announced after 100% of the votes have been counted. Andrej Babiš's populist ANO (lit. YES) party came out on top, winning 34.5% of the vote and 80 seats in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.
The SPOLU coalition bloc won 23.4% of the vote and 52 seats. The gap between ANO and SPOLU narrowed in the final stage of the count, with the capital Prague remaining the only region where ANO did not lead.
With these results, Babiš's party will not be able to form a majority government without the involvement of other political forces.
At a press conference, Babiš called the results “historic” and announced his intention to form a single-party government with the support of the Motorists (6.8%, 13 seats) and the populist SPD party (7.8%, 15 seats). Other potential allies, such as the populist-communist Stačilo! party with 4.3%, did not make it into parliament.
Former Czech Prime Minister and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš criticized the part of the state budget that goes to support Ukraine, in particular the Czech Republic's initiative to supply ammunition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to him, aid to Ukraine should be organized by NATO, and the government should first and foremost take care of the needs of Czech citizens.
“We are helping Ukraine through the European Union. The EU is helping Ukraine, and this is provided for in the next European budget... But if we do not have funds for Czech citizens for medicines and basic social needs, then, of course, we must first take care of them,” the politician said.
In addition, Babiš believes that Ukraine is not yet ready to join the EU, as the war must first be ended, but he does not rule out future cooperation between Prague and Kyiv.
As The Gaze informed earlier, the Czech initiative supplying ammunition to Ukraine, which has delivered over a million shells this year, faced domestic criticism from populist leader Andrej Babiš and some voters who view it as excessive.