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Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s ANO movement faced a stiff test in first-round voting for the Senate this weekend.
Czechs had headed to the polls on Friday and Saturday to elect local representatives as well as a third of the Senate’s members in what was seen as a popularity test for Babiš.
According to the Czech Statistics Office, the Senate vote saw 154 candidates standing for 27 seats.
“Five senators were elected in the first round, equalling the historic record set in 2024,” Eva Krumpová, first deputy chair of the Statistics Office, said.
Of the five candidates to win seats outright, none were from the ANO.
Twenty-two Senate seats are still to be contested in the runoffs, with 13 ANO candidates advancing to second-round voting to face off against 26 candidates from parties and groups of pro-western opposition that united in many districts to form broad coalitions.
In the local elections, independent candidates and groups appeared to be winning most seats around the country, as expected. The ANO won in six regional capitals.
Babiš, who previously served as PM from 2017 to 2021, returned to power after the ANO sealed a strong win in parliamentary elections in October 2025. The ANO, which continues to hold a sizeable lead in opinion polls as the country’s most popular party, formed a nationalist coalition government with the Motorists for Themselves (AUTO) and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) parties.
The billionaire populist politician and founder of the Agrofert food and chemicals group has distanced his government from support for Ukraine since taking office. The ANO had campaigned on promises to focus on domestic affairs such as energy prices, pensions, and housing, as they sought to tap into concerns too much money was being sent to Kyiv.
Czech President Petr Pavel remains a firm supporter of Ukraine, as does the opposition, however.
Babiš also survived a no-confidence vote earlier this month tied partly to the country’s widening budget deficit.
Additional sources • AP