Babis seen winning Czech elections but missing majority to form gov’t

Prague, Oct 9 (EFE).- The Czech Republic’s prime minister Andrej Babis, leader of the ANO ruling party, was seen Saturday winning election with 28.3% of votes in his favor, but is missing a majority in parliament to form government.

The opposition’s right-wing SPOLU party came second with 26.3 percent of the vote, ahead of the center-left Pirates and Mayors coalition with 14.8 percent. Combined, they can have a narrow parliamentary majority.

At the moment, only a fourth party would enter Parliament, the ultra-nationalist SPD, with 10%, while the social democratic CSSD would be left out with 4.7%, as well as the communists of the KSCM, with 3.8%.

This means that the opposition obtained 104 out of 200 Parliament seats although the difference in favor of the center-right SPOLU, led by the Civic Democratic Party, could still increase as the vote-counting closes.

Prime minister Babis, who was the favorite in the election, appeared earlier this week in the Pandora Papers, according to which he invested 16 million euros in real estate on the French Riviera through companies from tax havens.  EFE

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