Czech voters head to polls as Andrej Babis expected to top in tight election

Czechs began voting on Friday in a two-day general election, which the party of self-described “Trumpist” Andrej Babis is expected to top, though without gaining an outright majority, spelling tricky negotiations ahead

Czechs began voting on Friday in a two-day general election, which the party of self-described “Trumpist” Andrej Babis is expected to top, though without gaining an outright majority, spelling tricky negotiations ahead.

A possible return to power of the billionaire ex-premier could draw the Czech Republic – an ally of Ukraine – closer to EU mavericks Hungary and Slovakia and turn relations with both Kyiv and Brussels rocky.

Babis is campaigning in the EU and NATO member of 11 million people on pledges of welfare and halting military aid to Ukraine.

Many voters blame the centre-right coalition government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala for ignoring problems at home while providing aid to Ukraine.

Casting his ballot in the eastern city of Ostrava, Babis labelled the vote as a showdown between him and Fiala.

“Nothing is certain, we haven’t won yet,” the 71-year-old said.

Babis’s ANO (“Yes”) party tops the opinion polls, with support exceeding 30 percent, ahead of Fiala’s Together grouping with about 20 percent.

‘U-turn’

Casting her ballot at a Prague school, librarian Magdalena Servitova, 50, told AFP she would “hate a U-turn that would take us somewhere else”.

“I would like our policy vis-a-vis Ukraine to continue as well, we should not turn our backs on Ukraine,” she said.

Prague driver Vaclav Nikl, 65, told AFP he would expect “a better life than now” after the election.

Polling stations were opened from 1200 GMT to 2000 GMT on Friday. They are due to reopen from 0600 to 1200 GMT on Saturday.

Election results were expected late Saturday.

Describing himself as a “peacemonger” calling for a truce in Ukraine, Babis has vowed a “Czechs first” approach – echoing US President Donald Trump.

While he was prime minister from 2017 to 2021, Babis was critical of some EU policies and is on good terms with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, who have maintained ties with Moscow despite its invasion of Ukraine.

Fiala, a 61-year-old former political science professor, said the vote was “deciding the direction of the Czech Republic”.

It will decide “whether we head into the past or into the future, whether our path goes east or west,” he said after casting his ballot in the second Czech city of Brno.

‘Pro-Russian propaganda’

But Charles University ana