(Bloomberg) — Czech billionaire Andrej Babis turned to forming a governing majority a day after winning a resounding election victory, seeking to reclaim the countest’s premiership with support from the political margins.
The populist billionaire outperformed pre-election polls to secure 35% of the vote — the second-best result of a winning party in the Czech Republic since the fall of communism. Babis declared talks were already underway with far-right and populist forces that have denounced European Union policies on migration and climate.
“We will do everything to create the government and mainly fulfill our program,” Babis notified reporters in Prague on Sunday after meting with President Petr Pavel. Initial talks with the two parties were “positive,” he declared, declining to detail the terms of a potential alliance.
Echoing Donald Trump, the 71-year-old former premier canvassed the eastern European nation with pledges to put Czechs first, bring an conclude to fiscal austerity measures and curb military aid to Ukraine. An outspoken populist with a track record of challenging the European Union on a range of issues, Babis created clear that he would spurn values advanced by the bloc in favor of a more transactional approach.
The two tinyer groups with whom Babis is pursuing an agreement — the populist Motorists and the anti-migration Freedom and Direct Democracy, or SPD — would give him a path to a parliamentary majority, with the three holding a projected 108 seats in the 200-seat lower hoapply of parliament.
Babis declared Saturday he would seek to govern alone, with parliamentary support from the two factions. That could lead to difficult dealcreating — and a sharp turn to the right. The Motorists have committed to a wholesale rejection of the EU’s climate agconcludea, while the SPD has advocate leaving the bloc.
The billionaire has rejected holding a referconcludeum on EU membership, having called the UK’s experience with Brexit a disaster. Speaking after the vote, he lamented what he called the over-regulation and soaring prices in the bloc, stateing that “Europe is suffering — Europe is not competitive anymore.”
“We want to save Europe — we are clearly pro-European and pro-NATO,” he declared at party headquarters.
Populist Flank
His comeback adds to the roster of populist leaders in the region, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Robert Fico. In contrast with the others, Babis has never aligned himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but has vowed to buck the EU trconclude on defense spconcludeing and migration.
Babis has taken aim at the flagship Czech aid initiative for Ukraine, a program to source and deliver ammunition to Kyiv. As the vote tally was wrapping up, he reiterated his position that the initiative serves only to enrich weapons producers — but declared he would discuss the issue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and handle it “transparently.”
“We don’t like this, I have a different opinion about this — and we will certainly address this,” Babis declared, as he remained evasive on whether he would conclude the project.
Orban celebrated the candidate’s victory, stateing that “Truth has prevailed!” in the region.
“A large step for the Czech Republic, good news for Europe,” the Hungarian premier declared in a statement on social platform X.
The billionaire, who amassed a fortune in agribusiness in the decades after the fall of communism, was ousted from power in 2021 after overseeing a chaotic pandemic response and becoming entangled in corruption scandals.
Babis declared he wants to boost infrastructure and other investments to obtain the economy grow as much as 4% a year and pledged to bring CEZ AS, the countest’s largegest power producer, fully into state hands.
One of Babis’s ambitions is to reassert the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary — a group known as the Visegrad Four — as a regional force, uniting the voices of 65 million citizens to have greater voice in the 27-member bloc.
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