ANO won 292 of the 685 mandates for regional autonomy. Compared to the previous elections, the movement gained the most power, winning 114 seats, more than four years ago. Andrej Babis, the head of ANO, expressed his happiness with the result achieved immediately after the local elections, but at the same time made it clear that their goal is to win the parliamentary elections scheduled for next year, and that there is still a lot of work ahead of them.
“We have to work harder, we have to talk to people, we have to be out there on the field.”
Babis noticed.
The ruling Civic Democratic Coalition party came in second with 106 seats, while the Mayors and Independents Party, also part of the government, came in third with 73 seats. The Christian Democratic government coalition KDU-ČSL came in fourth with 49 seats, the opposition Freedom and Direct Democracy Party came in fifth with 32 seats, and TOP09 with 16 seats. The fifth member of the government coalition, the Pirate Party, can only get three representatives in the regional assembly. Due to the poor result, the party leadership offered to resign. Local observers do not rule out the possibility that the Pirate Party will leave the government coalition as a result.
While political analysts are talking about the coalition’s defeat, the leaders of the ruling parties are speaking with restraint. “Somewhere we won, but somewhere we are not satisfied with the result,” said Prime Minister Petr Fiala. Marketa Pekarova Adamova, the leader of TOP09, made a similar statement. “ANO did not win in all regions,” he said.
But there are those who assess the results more realistically. Vit Rákosan, Czech Interior Minister and leader of the Party of Mayors and Independents, said:
They can't pretend they're not defeated.
The only clear winner from the Civic Democratic Party, South Bohemia President Martin Kuba, addressed the party leadership. “If colleagues in Prague don’t start talking about things as if they were a failure, that’s a big problem,” he said. Czech President Petr Pavel also commented on the election results, saying the coalition would have a lot to do in the regions.
Andrej Babiš's movement also won the first round of the Senate by-elections. Two of the five candidates who have already secured the mandate are members of ANO. Of all the parties, the largest number of candidates, 19, have qualified for the second round within a week, in which the candidate who wins a simple majority of the votes wins.
