Czechs are casting their ballots in a two-day general election, in which the party of populist billionaire Andrej Babis is expected to garner the most votes but not secure a majority, raising concerns that Ukraine ally the Czech Republic may draw closer to pro-Russian European Union countries Hungary and Slovakia.
Polling stations opened at 12:00 GMT and will close at 20:00 GMT on Friday, before reopening from 06:00 to 12:00 GMT on Saturday, with the results expected on Saturday evening.
Even if Babis’s ANO (Yes) party tops the vote, it will almost certainly have to negotiate a coalition. Analysts say the likely contender is the far-right opposition SPD movement, which is backed by about 12 percent of voters.
Babis, 71, has campaigned in the EU and NATO member of about 11 million people on pledges of welfare and halting military aid to Ukraine.
The current centre-right coalition government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, 61, has provided extensive humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, but many voters blame it for ignoring problems at home.
“A change is necessary. The Czech Republic must be more autonomous, it must not be just a messenger boy for Brussels,” 68-year-old geographer Jaroslav Kolar told the AFP news agency.
But doctor Anna Stefanova, 41, told AFP she was afraid of a “sway towards Russia”.
Babis was critical of some EU policies while he was prime minister from 2017 to 2021, and is on good terms with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, who have maintained strong ties with Moscow despite its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
However, Babis has rejected any steps towards exiting the EU or NATO, including calls for referendums, countering accusations by the current government that he would drag the country off its democratic pro-Western course.
ANO tops opinion polls, suggesting support exceeding 30 percent, ahead of Fiala’s Together grouping with about 20 percent.
Describing himself as a “peacemonger” calling for a truce in Ukraine, Babis has promised a “Czechs first” approach – echoing United States President Donald Trump – and pledged “a better life” for all Czechs.
In 2024, Babis cofounded the far-right Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, which also includes France’s National Rally among other parties.
Fiala said on X that voters would decide “whether we will continue on the path of freedom, high-quality democracy, security and prosperity, or whether we will go east”.
Some concerns about Russian propaganda being spread online over the course of the election period have emerged, though analysts say they cannot see a big shift in voter sentiment so far.
A group of analysts said last week that Czech TikTok accounts reaching millions of viewers “systematically spread pro-Russian propaganda and support anti-system parties through manipulated engagement”.
Last week, Moldova’s pro-Western governing party decisively won a parliamentary election plagued by claims of Russian interference and was widely seen as a definitive choice between staying in Europe’s orbit or lurching into Moscow’s.
Both Babis and Fiala have also seen scandals tarnish their reputations.
Fiala’s government is under fire over the justice ministry’s decision to accept $44m in bitcoins from a convicted criminal.
Babis, Slovak-born and the seventh-wealthiest Czech according to Forbes magazine, is due to stand trial for EU subsidy fraud worth more than $2m.
He has rejected all allegations of wrongdoing as “a smear campaign”.
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