On CNN Prima News yesterday, ANO leader Andrej Babis rejected the possibility of a coalition between his party and the Civic Democrats (ODS) after the next parliamentary elections. He said that Ideally, ANO will win as many votes as possible in the election to rule the country alone, possibly with the confidence of one smaller party.
His comments came as a new poll from Kantar CZ showed ANO winning next October’s elections by a wide margin, with 35.5% of the vote, followed by the Civic Democrats (ODS) and the Mayors and Independents (STAN) with support in the mid-teens.
“We need to have the maximum number of votes, 2.4 million, that would be great, so that nobody can bypass us, and basically so that we can govern with tolerance [from another party],” said Babis.
Babis recalled that he won 2.4 million votes in the presidential election runoff in January 2023. He said this would mean 44% of the vote in parliamentary elections.
Babis also said he does not want to discuss possible cooperation with the Communist-led Stacilo! (“Enough!”) coalition or the single-issue Motorists party, as he considers those debates premature.
He also refused to comment on the possibility of cooperation with the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), led by Tomio Okamura, or the idea of newly elected senator Robert Slachta (Prisaha) becoming interior minister in an ANO-led government. Slachta was the chief of the police unit fighting organised crime before entering politics. “What he wants is not as important as what we want,” said Babis.
If ANO forms the next government, Babis said the party would fight tax evasion, cut the running costs of the state, support economic growth through investment, and guarantee funding for pensions. He promised the party would present a specific list of savings.
The Kantar CZ poll found ANO on 35.5% of the vote, followed by ODS (14.5%) and STAN (13%). SPD were next on 6.5%, and the Pirates would scrape into the parliament with 5%, the threshold to enter the lower house of parliament. Support for the Pirates has dropped markedly since they left the government coalition. A separate poll released yesterday by the STEM agency showed the same ranking of the five most popular Czech parties.
TOP 09 and the Christian Democrats would both fail to reach parliament if they ran separately, according to Kantar, but both parties are expected to participate in the Spolu coalition again, alongside ODS; this coalition is forecast to take 20% of the vote.
The Communists, the Social Democrats, Prisaha, and the Motorists would remain outside of parliament.
The poll was carried out among more than one thousand respondents from September 30 to October 11.
According to Kantar, the events surrounding the departure of the Pirates from government have also significantly affected citizen satisfaction with the political situation.
At the beginning of the year, 22% said they were satisfied. This number rose to 27% in April and dropped to 25% in June. In the latest poll, only 20% considered the situation positive, significantly below average satisfaction. Kantar researchers wrote that the September regional and Senate elections and the events surrounding the Pirates’ departure from government may be behind the decline.
Kantar agency models of Czech general election in 2024 (results in percent):
| Oct | June | April | March | |
| ANO | 35,5 | 34 | 32 | 34,5 |
| ODS | 14,5 | 16 | 15,5 | 16 |
| STAN | 13 | 8,5 | 7,5 | 6,5 |
| SPD | 6,5 | 6 | 9 | 8 |
| Pirates | 5 | 9 | 11 | 10,5 |
| TOP 09 | 4,5 | 4 | 5 | 4,5 |
| KDU-CSL | 3,5 | 3 | 3,5 | 3 |
| Prisaha | 3 | 4,5 | 3,5 | 2,5 |
| KSCM | 3 | 3 | 2,5 | 3 |
| SOCDEM | 2,5 | 2,5 | 3 | 3 |
