The opposition defeats Babis, the ruler of the Czech Republic

The outcome of the elections in the Czech Republic was unexpected and complex.

Two opposition party blocs won 108 of the 200 seats in parliament in the parliamentary elections that ended on Saturday.

Thus, billionaire Andrej Babis and Ano seem to lose power in Prague, despite the fact that the party by about 27 percent will be the largest single party in the elections, when 99 percent of the votes were counted.

But the leader of one of the blocs, Ivan Bartos, said he was ready for government negotiations. The bipartisan alliance is led by the Pirate Party as well as the Mayor and The Independent. Together, the two received just over 15 percent of the vote.

bourgeois bloc

First out is the bourgeois alliance together. The bloc gets nearly 28 percent of the vote, and has already been declared irrelevant to the government’s negotiations with Babis and his party.

Thus, a change of government awaits – and possibly protracted government negotiations.

Ano is described as a populist party and is led by 67-year-old food, chemical and media mogul Andre Babis, who is also one of the country’s richest men.

Immediately after the election result, the defiant Babis said he was ready to remain as prime minister should President Milos Zeman ask him to do so.

Money in tax havens

In connection with the publication of the so-called leaked Pandora documents, Babis was accused of hiding large sums of money in tax havens. In addition, he was investigated for conflict of interest as a politician due to his business activities.

The partisan bloc with the Pirate Party, Mayor and Independence is a fairly new political force.

The Pirate Party, the largest among the educated urbanites, advocates, among other things, greater transparency in public affairs. Mayors and independents, who have been in Parliament for more than a decade, are seeking to give more powers to municipalities.

The Czech Communist Party made a historically poor choice, receiving less than four percent of the vote.

Correction: In an earlier version of the text, Andrei Pape got the wrong address.