ANO makes breakthrough in Czech regional elections

The ANO party of millionaire businessman Andrej Babiš triumphed in regional elections, winning most votes and seats in nine of the 13 areas being contested. The Social Democrats scored highest in the Vysočina and South Bohemia regions with the Christian Democrats on top in the Zlin region and the movement Mayors for the Liberec Region polling best in that part of north Bohemia. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia was beaten by ANO into second place in the Ustí region. The outcome of voting which took place on Friday and Saturday will be a blow for the biggest government party, the Social Democrats, headed by prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka. They had previously dominated nearly all regional assemblies across the country with leading roles in 12 out of 13 regions and regional governors, or hejtmen, in 11 of them. Sobotka said as the results came in that it was clear that after eight years of Social Democratic dominance at regional level people were looking for a change and his party had to find new policies to win broader support in the future. Overall, ANO landed around 21 percent of all the votes nationwide in the regional contests pushing the Social Democrats, with just over 15 percent, into second place. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia gained around 11 percent support, the Civic Democrats just short of 10 percent, and Christian Democrats around 6.5 percent. In spite of turning out the winner, ANO is not guaranteed to dominate the regional assemblies with that to be decided by coalition negotiations.

Author: Chris Johnstone