ResponsibleStateCraft.org:
Nationalist populist Andrej Babiš scored a decisive win in the Czech Republic’s parliamentary elections held over the weekend. With the vote count almost finalized, the ANO (“Yes”) party of former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš had 35% of the vote with incumbent Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s centrist Spolu (“Together”) coalition in second place with around 23%.
ANO’s victory margin exceeds the forecasts of pre-election polling, which anticipated a gap of about ten percentage points.
This election replicated the pattern seen in recent contests in Austria, Poland, and Romania where right populists emulating the success of Trump have harnessed economic and social grievances, a sovereigntist challenge to the EU, migration flows, and Ukraine fatigue to gain support and sometimes win power. These developments across Europe have been called Trump’s European revolution.
