In the regional and Senate elections in the Czech Republic, the right-wing ANO (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens – Akce Nespokojených Občanů) party, a member of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, won big.
The Greens, on the other hand, lost 97 per cent of their seats.
Populist former prime minister Andrej Babis led his ANO party to a landslide victory in the election on September 21.
ANO won 10 of the 13 regions contested, securing a total of 291 local council seats – up 119 seats compared to the previous election.
In two regions, ANO is now able to govern without forming a coalition.
Its party leader Andrej Babiš has hailed the victory in the regions as “a phenomenal success”. He gave the lion’s share of the credit to party deputy leader Karel Havlíček, who actively helped campaigning, particularly in Central Bohemia where the party won an unexpected and convincing victory.
ANO is the main opposition party in Czechia and has positioned itself increasingly to the Right, turning into a populist, Conservative and nationalist party after it left the Liberal Renew group in the European Parliament.
For the first time in Czech history, five senators were elected in the first round. Two from the ANO party, one Christian Democrat, one Social Democrat and one independent. Over the weekend of September 28, the other 22 Senate seats will be voted on in run-offs.
Elections for one-third of the 81 Senate seats are held every two years, Senators are elected for a six-year term.
Amid Cyclone Boris that flooded large areas of Central Europe recently, including in the Czech Republic, Greens took the biggest beating.
The party lost nearly all their seats, ending up with just three. The Greens previously had 99 seats via the Pirate Party and eight via Zeleni. The Pirates lost 96 seats and Zeleni all of theirs.
Leader of the Pirate Party Ivan Bartoš announced that the party’s leadership would resign at an upcoming conference that will examine the causes behind the group’s implosion.
He said Pirate councillors in the various regions had done a great deal of work but he was disappointed with the vote result. In recent weeks, the party leader has come under fire for what many saw as the poorly executed digitisation of the country’s building permits system.
Zeleni’s leadership also resigned. Green co-chair Magdalena Davis said the election result was “a major failure”.
“I accept full responsibility for the result and will resign from my position, together with the other members of the Presidium.”
She went on to complain about “the growing trend of ‘oligarchisation’ of politics“.
“We are not backed by any lobby groups that would finance our election campaigns in exchange for later ‘services’, only a number of small donors like you or me,” Davis added.
The Conservative-Liberal party ODS of current Prime Minster Petr Fiala, and part of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the EP, had a fairly good result, gaining eight seats, leaving it with 106 overall and securing the second spot across the board. ODS said it did not expect these results to impact the national government.
Voter turnout was only around 33 per cent.
The average age of elected councillors was 50.77 years. The oldest councillor is 76 years old, the youngest 20 years old. In regional councils, 540 men and 145 women will have a seat, according to the Czech Statistical office.
Right wins regional elections in Czechia, Greens obliterated (brusselssignal.eu)