Czechia Votes Wrong

Populist win hands more power to President Pavel.

It’s bad news — no sugar-coating that. In the middle of an existential crisis on Europe’s eastern flank, Czechia has handed victory to a populist.

But as Jakub Janda, director of the Prague-based security think tank European Values, points out, context matters: Pro-Russian parties won far less votes of the vote in Czechia compared to Germany.

The real problem wasn’t ideology but fragmentation. Eight different parties cleared the one-percent threshold, splintering the vote. Right-wing populist Andrej Babiš and his ANO movement emerged with the largest share at 34.5%. The center-right bloc lost only 4.4% compared to last year, yet its decline deepened as votes scattered across too many parties.

But the problem for Babiš’s populist ANO party is that it’s nowhere near the 200-seat majority needed to form a government. As Politico notes, “all the country’s mainstream parties have ruled out working with Babiš after the election, leaving him no choice but to turn to extreme options.”

That means ANO will likely try to build a coalition with the hard-right and the…