The Social Democrats (CSSD) and also Communist suffered immense losses and will not enter some municipal assemblies at all.
In Prague, the opposition Civic Democrats and Pirates took first and second places. However, the Civic Democrats´ victory appears to be a hollow victory, as the party will likely be frozen out of power as well as ANO since a group of several other parties that is looking to band together would have 13 mandates, giving them a comfortable majority of 39 seats in the 65-seat Prague City Assembly.
Czechs also picked one third of the upper chamber of parliament. Former presidential candidate Jiří Drahoš and current senator and regional governor Jiří Čunek are the only two candidates who gained more than 50 percent of the vote. Civic Democrats had the best showing, with 11 of its candidates advanced to the second round. The Social Democrats have only five and the party will likely lose the post of Senate speaker. And for the first time since the upper chamber of Parliament was formed, the Communists may fail to elect a representative in a Senate race.
Therefore, the big losers of the day, in both the municipal and Senate races, were the Social Democrats and Communists. Nevertheless, CSSD chairman Jan Hamáček takes the outcome as a sign that the Social Democrats have already bounced off the floor after last year’s parliamentary elections.
According to Prime Minister and ANO chairman Andrej Babiš, the result in the regional and district cities is a success. “I think our citizens see that the ANO movement is moving our country forward. To the top of Europe,“ the Czech PM said in his post-election speech.
