What Czechia’s local election results mean for Andrej Babiš’s government

Czechia’s weekend local elections produced a complicated political picture. Independent candidates and local associations again won the overwhelming majority of council seats, while Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s ANO secured the largest overall share of votes among the national parties. At the same time, ANO lost ground in Prague, Brno and some other large cities, while its smaller coalition partners performed poorly.

The elections were the first nationwide test since Andrej Babiš returned to power following the 2025 parliamentary election. Political scientist Vladimíra Dvořáková, director of the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies at the Czech Technical University in Prague, cautions against treating municipal results as a straightforward national verdict. orcid.org

“Municipal elections are important mainly for stabilising democracy, and I am very happy that quite a lot of people came to vote. Almost 50 percent is quite good for this type of election. But we are only one year after the parliamentary elections, and the cabinet has been in power for less than a year. That is rather a short period from which to draw firm conclusions.” Turnout reached 48 percent, almost two percentage points higher than in 2022. It was therefore relatively strong by the standards of Czech local elections, although slightly more than half of eligible voters stayed at home.

ANO weaker in the largest cities

Vladimíra Dvořáková says ANO’s uneven performance reflects a longstanding geographical divide. The governing movement remains powerful in smaller and medium-sized towns but has traditionally found Prague and Brno more difficult.

“ANO was not very successful in the big cities, especially in the two main cities, Prague and Brno. On the other hand, that is not so surprising, because ANO has never been particularly successful there. But compared with the elections four years ago, we can see that its position has weakened. That is a message that its support in the big cities is declining.” She suggests that concerns about the state budget and its projected deficit may have contributed to the result among urban voters. Nevertheless, ANO retains substantial backing outside the two largest cities.

The results were less encouraging for the government’s junior partners. The Freedom and Direct Democracy party, or SPD, and the Motorists won comparatively few municipal seats. Vladimíra Dvořáková describes this as a warning for the coalition rather than proof of an immediate collapse in its support.

The Motorists face a particular organisational problem. The relatively new party has not developed an extensive local network. Municipal contests require candidates known in their communities and experienced in dealing with practical local issues, making national popularity difficult to translate into council seats.

Mayors and Independents (STAN) strengthens its opposition position

Among the opposition parties, the Mayors and Independents movement, STAN, emerged in a particularly strong position. Its success may alter the distribution of influence within the opposition itself.

“As far as the opposition is concerned, STAN seems to be in the best position. It gained a lot of new votes and support. This may be changing the balance within the current opposition, which is quite important. But again, we are only one year after the parliamentary elections, and I would not like to exaggerate the significance of that.”

The Christian Democrats also performed strongly by number of elected councillors, reflecting their deep roots in smaller towns and rural areas. ANO winning the largest vote total while other parties secured more council seats illustrates the difficulty of drawing one national conclusion from thousands of local contests.

Thousands of councils, often without party competition

Czechia’s fragmented municipal structure complicates the picture further. The country has more than 6,200 municipalities, many with only a few hundred inhabitants, and more than 1,800 offered voters only one candidate list. In such communities, personal relationships and practical cooperation can matter more than national party divisions.

“In small villages, there are very often no political-party candidates. People mostly cooperate because they know their neighbours. On the one hand, that is not necessarily bad, because people understand the problems of their own municipality and what they want to solve. On the other hand, it is rather costly, because it is difficult to find money for investments or develop a deeper strategy connected with the wider region.”

The elections therefore offer the government a mixed message. ANO remains the strongest national movement, but its losses in the largest cities and the poor results of its coalition partners provide reasons for concern. Meanwhile, the strength of STAN and thousands of local independents shows that municipal politics follows its own logic and cannot be reduced to a referendum on the government.