Liberal-conservative coalition teams up with Pirates and Mayors to oust Czech PM

SPOTU (Together) has captured 27.79% of votes, with the PM’s party receiving 27.12%

Czechia’s 2021 legislative elections were held on 8 and 9 October. With all votes now counted, it appears that the ruling party led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš may be ousted. More specifically, the Czech statistical office shared the results of the elections, illustrating that the liberal-conservative three-party coalition SPOTU (Together) has captured the most votes.

The Together coalition is made up of the Civic Democratic Party, the Christian Democrats, and TOP 09. According to the statistics office, Together has received 27.79% of the votes. Led by the leader of the Civic Democratic Party Petr Fiala, this three-party coalition overtook Babiš’ populist ANO (Yes) party, which received 27.12% of the votes. Members of the Together coalition were overjoyed with their unexpected triumph as they narrowly beat the ANO party.

Czechia’s voters also put their trust in the coalition of Pirates & Mayors and Independents, which captured 16.52% of votes, and the far-right Democracy party, which received 9.56% of votes. Aside from these four, no other candidates gained sufficient support to enter Czechia’s 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.

Memorandum of future cooperation

On 9 October, Fiala shared that Together and the coalition of Pirates and Mayors have now signed a memorandum of future cooperation. With this memorandum, the two coalitions declare their intent to form a majority government.

Although the five political entities (ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09, Pirates, Mayors and independents) have agreed to form a majority, it must be noted that they differ in several important ways. Taking a case in point, the Pirates support progressive causes, such as gay marriage, while Fiala’s followers reject them.

Uncertainty as President Zeman falls ill

After citizens have cast their votes and results have been announced, it is up to the president to nominate the country’s future prime minister. Unfortunately, Czechia now finds itself in limbo as President Milos Zeman has fallen ill and is thus unable to lead talks with the parties’ leaders.

Local media have reported that Zeman previously revealed his intention to appoint the leader of the biggest winning individual party to form a government. Based on the results of the two-day election, this would be Babiš. With Zeman’s current condition, it is unclear what will happen.

The Czech statistical office revealed that this year’s elections had a turnout of 65.43%. Commenting on this percentage, the Chairman of the Czech Statistical Office Marek Rojíček shared that this turnout is the highest in parliamentary elections since 1998.