Populist billionaire Andrej Babis to be named new Czech premier

Czech President Milos Zeman said on Sunday he intended to name ANO (Yes) party leader Andrej Babis as the next prime minister after the anti-establishment movement won an election over the weekend by a huge margin.

The billionaire businessman Babis's party won 29.6 percent at the polls, nearly three times as much as the closest competitor in the election, but ANO may struggle to find willing coalition partners while Babis faces fraud charges that he denies.

Babis’s anti-corruption and anti-euro ANO movement, having won 78 parliament seats, was followed by the eurosceptic right-wing ODS party on 11.3 percent (25 seats). Turnout was at 60 percent.

Dubbed the “Czech version of Trump” by Forbes, the wiry, grey-haired, Slovak-born farming, media and chemicals mogul is the Czech Republic’s second-richest man.

He set up the populist ANO (Yes) party in 2011 as a political outsider determined to lure voters with promises of clean politics in the EU country of 10.6 million ranked more corrupt than Botswana by Transparency International.

ANO entered parliament two years later, but Babis himself has since been dogged by allegations of wrongdoing, something he flatly denies.

TRT World spoke to Milos Gregor of Masaryk University in Brno.

The eurosceptic right-wing ODS party has clinched third spot with 10.51 percent and the anti-establishment Pirates scored 10.04 percent.

Despite the country’s economic success, analysts say many Czechs who are heavily in debt or working long hours for low wages feel they have been left behind and are turning to populist parties to vent their ire.

Far-right and far-left anti-EU parties made gains in a fragmented vote that appeared to put eight parties into the 200-seat Czech parliament with few natural coalition allies among them, something analysts warn could herald instability and even chaos. 

The Social Democrats (CSSD) who head the outgoing coalition government took a bruising, coming in sixth with 7.67 percent of the vote.

Voting earlier on Saturday, outgoing Social Democrats (CSSD) Prime Minister Sobotka warned the election “will decide about our country’s focus, whether we stay part of the EU and NATO, or whether extremist forces trying to drive us out of these structures will post gains.”

The far-right SPD of Tokyo-born entrepreneur Tomio Okamura made the strongest gains clinching second spot on strong anti-EU, anti-migrant and anti-Islam rhetoric, similar to surging far-right parties in neighbouring Austria and Germany. 

France’s far-right National Front Marine Le Pen sent Okamura a message of support.

"A new age"

A 63-year-old Slovak-born chemicals, food and media tycoon, Babis said he expected the Czech Republic to "enter a new stage" after voting on Friday.

He said the country needed "a government which will really tackle people's problems."

While the billionaire-politician has vowed to steer clear of the eurozone and echoes other eastern EU leaders who accuse Brussels of attempting to limit national sovereignty by imposing rules like migrant quotas, he favours a united Europe and balks at talk of a "Czexit".

"I think his policy is for the people," pensioner Alena Kolarova said after voting in Prague.

He  praised Babis for "restoring order in public finances and tax collection" during his three-year stint as finance minister that ended in May.