The conservative and liberal opposition in Czechia has decisively defended its majority in the upper house of parliament after the second round of partial Senate elections ended on Saturday. The governing ANO party of billionaire Andrej Babis failed to win any of the remaining seats, despite fielding the largest number of candidates in the runoff, according to News ORF.
With almost all ballots counted, the Mayors and Independents party, known as STAN, emerged as the clear winner. Across both rounds of voting, it secured ten of the 27 seats that were up for election. The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) took seven seats, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) won three, and the conservative TOP 09 gained two. The remaining mandates went to smaller parties.
Czech voters renew only one third of the Senate’s 81 seats every two years. Turnout was low, as expected, at around 21 percent of eligible voters.
Although the Senate cannot block ordinary legislation outright, it can delay changes to laws and prevent amendments to the constitution. For Babis’s ANO, the result is a setback: even where its candidates reached the second round, they were unable to convert that advantage into seats. The outcome preserves a significant check on the government’s legislative ambitions and signals continued strength for the opposition bloc in Czech politics.
