Description: Populist ANO leader Andrej Babis has been reelected as the Czech Republic’s new Prime Minister in the latest general elections. Babis, who served as Prime Minister between 2017 and 2021 announced that he would begin coalition talks with parties such as the Motorists and the SPD which are a combination of anti – immigration, anti – EU and anti – NATO parties. ANO would have to form a broader coalition in order to secure majority in Parliament in order not to be contested or its decisions consistently blocked by a potential majority in the oppositional bloc. ANO is also part of the Patriots of Europe conservative bloc of parties within the EU, where the party is allied with Orban’s Fidesz. Babis, who also faces legal challenges such as conflict-of-interest allegations and subsidy fraud, also vowed to drastically shorten munition supplies to Ukraine and contest the immigration status of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic, as well as protest EU’s carbon reduction policies and its general pact on immigration.
Impact: The Czech Republic has joined the conservative right political bloc of countries which could potentially threaten and endanger existential questions within the EU, such as energy dependency, immigration policies and climate change commitments. As part of a larger conservative bloc within the European Parliament, ANO would most probably toughen the Czech Republic’s position on immigration and military support towards Ukraine. Babis would have to materialize the coalition talks with other political parties with extreme ideologies and tendencies such as the SPD and the Motorists which would additionally strengthen ANO’s nationalistic and conservative policies, expected to deliver economic growth, higher wages and pensions and tax discounts. The systemic interchange from a centrist to a conservative government would mostly impact the Czech Republic on a domestic level which is expected to represent another part of the opposition within the EU, consolidating the conservative bloc with Hungary and Slovakia.