Babis’s defeat will shift Czech politics rightwards

Significance

The country is on the threshold of great political change, voters having delivered a resounding ‘no’ to the ruling Ano ('Yes') movement and voted the Social Democrats and Communists out of the lower house. The fallout includes the possibility of replacing President Milos Zeman, who is in hospital and has been pronounced unable to perform his duties.

Impacts

• The former opposition would reopen agreed chapters of the Green Deal to compensate highly industrialised EU member states’ green transition.
• Babis’s departure and the Zeman presidency’s debility should free foreign policy from Russian and Chinese influence.
• Babis’s Agrofert conglomerate stands to lose many of the EU subsidies it has enjoyed under a government favourable towards it.
• The incoming government is likely to dismiss Chief State Prosecutor Igor Striz, appointed by the Babis administration in July.