The local council and Senate elections are now in the past, and ruling coalitions have already been formed in many municipalities. National party headquarters are counting their gains and losses, even though almost everyone considers themselves a winner, meaning there should theoretically be no talk of losses at all. Who, then, won and who lost? And can we speak of the end of the ANO movement?
At the level of smaller local councils, the weakening of national political parties in municipal politics is evident. In these cases, parliamentary parties either did not stand at all, or stood under different names in order to conceal their identity. This shows that people in smaller municipalities often make their decisions not based on how they vote in parliamentary elections, but on their experience with local politics and local personalities. As a result, local independent associations gained ground, winning two thousand more councillors compared to the previous local elections.
In connection with the municipal elections, the question of how democratic local elections actually are returned to the forefront of public debate during the campaign. In just under thirty per cent of all municipalities, only a single candidate list was put forward, matching the exact number of seats on the council. Far more frequent debates followed statements by politicians from the current parliamentary majority, who framed both the local and Senate elections as a "referendum on the government". How this referendum turned out can be seen from the results in the larger cities governed by the ANO movement.
As the votes were counted, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš had to swallow the bitter pill that his movement had lost this referendum. ANO lost votes everywhere; the biggest disappointments were the losses of its strongholds in northern Bohemia as well as peripheral district towns in Moravia, particularly in the Moravian region of Haná, where a significant proportion of businesses belonging to the Agrofert holding are concentrated. Another major category is the regional capitals, which reflect national politics the most at this level. Across all regional capitals combined, ANO lost 43 seats, the sole exception being Plzeň, where the strongest governing party increased its seat count compared to the previous elections.
The remaining governing parties – Tomio Okamura’s SPD and the Motorists for themselves (Motoristé sobě) – fared much worse. For both parties, one can speak of gradual marginalisation. Although the current Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and leader of Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) insists that his party performed well, the fact that the movement lost two-thirds of its councillors tells a different story. Meanwhile, the Motorists have merely confirmed their reputation as a "single-use party", as their gains are negligible and all 20 of their elected councillors will end up in opposition.
In the opposition camp, there was a degree of tension ahead of the elections – mainly over whether Mayors and Independents (STAN) would manage to convert their growing national popularity into seats at the local level. A certain amount of attention was also focused on the Christian Democrats (Lidovci), led by regional governor Jan Grolich.
It was the Mayors (STAN) who emerged strongest from the opposition. Not only did they increase their number of councillors, but they even secured the most prominent posts on the executive councils of the Czech Republic’s four largest cities. The new Mayor of Prague, Petr Hlubuček, has already agreed on the framework of a coalition between his STAN movement, Spolu, and a third party with which negotiations are still ongoing. In Brno, they won the election jointly with the Christian Democrats, and in both Plzeň and Ostrava they will take up seats on the city executive board.
The opposition was helped by lower turnout amongst voters of the governing parties, public experience with the ANO movement at the local level, and statements made by leading government figures. At a time of unprecedented national borrowing, they frequently mention tapping into the financial reserves of municipalities and major cities, often on the condition that they cooperate with the government.
The Senate elections, meanwhile, belonged to the opposition. Here again, one can speak of a failure for the governing parties, whose voters stayed away from the polls, particularly in the second round, where turnout was lower. Constituency No. 75 – Karviná can unequivocally be described as a surprise: the only seat where the ANO movement was defending a Senate mandate, which it failed to hold after six years.
It may seem that the opposition parties have seized the momentum and can build an alternative force capable of defeating Andrej Babiš in the next general election. However, everything depends on whether the opposition party leaders can translate their municipal election practices to the national level, and whether personal animosities do not prevail. Both the Christian Democrats and TOP 09 currently sit below the five-per-cent threshold required to enter the Chamber of Deputies, making a standalone run risky for them. Why not, then, build on the success of 2021? This year’s Senate elections, which saw mutual agreements between the Civic Democrats (ODS), STAN, the Christian Democrats, and TOP 09, convincingly demonstrate that anti-government voters are willing to back joint candidates. Opposition voters appreciated this step five years ago as well, and if the parties understand the signal and refrain from mutual finger-pointing over who poached whose members – referring to the dispute between the Christian Democrats and TOP 09 in South Moravia – such a bloc could defeat Andrej Babiš and, by extension, the governing parties.
However, the goal cannot merely be the "defeat" of Andrej Babiš. And here the parties can learn from what needs to change compared to 2021. An opposition victory must necessarily include a coherent and clear programme that does not simply promise "deagrofertisation" or a "pro-Western direction" without a clearly defined position. Nor can promises regarding the management of public finances – which will be in a noticeably worse state – be reduced merely to higher or lower taxes, spending cuts, or "investing our way out of the crisis". The opposition therefore faces a difficult task. Andrej Babiš is certainly not in the habit of losing, nor is he finished in politics. Despite any antipathy we might feel towards him, he remains a seasoned politician who will not give up his position, even after suffering a crushing defeat in this year’s elections.
Nearly three-quarters of voters in the Canadian province of Alberta have voted against greater independence from the central government. Although the local separatist movement suffered a defeat, voices from the losing camp are already vowing continued resistance regardless of the result. The referendum comes at a time when the Canadian government is facing challenges on multiple fronts.
This came a full 12 years after its construction was completed. The opening of the bridge is meant to symbolise the deepening of relations between the two countries, which in recent years have been constrained mainly by economic sanctions.
