ANO posts its worst Prague election result in years, placing fourth
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The ANO party has declared victory in the municipal elections, even though in Prague it won only about 14.4% of the vote in preliminary counts and came fourth. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and the party’s first deputy chairman Karel Havlíček spoke at a press conference on Saturday evening, with no celebration and no other party officials on stage.
Four years ago, while in opposition, Babiš called the municipal elections a referendum on the Fiala government. Now ANO is the strongest party in the ruling coalition, and when asked whether this year’s elections were the same kind of referendum, he replied: “As if we should resign?” Havlíček was more cautious: in his words, ANO won, the party holds the country’s third- and fourth-largest cities, it gained ground in some places and lost it in others, and he did not consider the results bad. He added: “It’s better to attack from opposition.”
A headquarters without a headquarters, and a modest result
Election day itself looked unusual: in Prague, ANO did not have its customary election headquarters, and the event was billed in advance only as a press conference, which began around nine in the evening. During the day just five of the movement’s politicians spoke to journalists. The Prague lead candidate Jan Hušbauer said it was “not a success, but not a failure either.”
When less than 70% of the votes had been counted, ANO was in fourth place with 15%. By the late hours of the night its share stood at 14.44%, below its 2018 result of 15.37%, the party’s previous low in a Prague city council election. Since the triumph of 2014, when ANO won in the capital, it has not managed to repeat first place. Deputy chairman Robert Králíček had said in advance that any result starting with a two would be a success.
Plzeň and Ostrava stay, Ústí is gone
Other cities offered some consolation: ANO comfortably defended its victory in Plzeň and Ostrava. But the party lost Ústí nad Labem, previously considered its impregnable stronghold.
Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz
