The ANO movement, led by former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, would win the hypothetical elections to the Chamber of Deputies in October with 31.5 percent, latest polling showed.
According to the Median polling agency, the ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) dropped to 13.5 percent while the Social Democrats (ČSSD) slightly exceeded the 5 percent threshold.
Babiš, an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, saw his party increase its support by 1 percentage point compared to September while support for ODS decreased by 2.5 percentage points. The ODS is led by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
A total of eight political parties and movements would make it to the Chamber of Deputies.
The conservative-populist Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) had half a percentage point less in September to 13.5 percent, while the Pirates fell the same amount to 11 percent. KDU-ČSL increased 2.5 points from September to 6 percent, while STAN remained at 5.5 percent. Support for TOP 09 fell by one percentage point to 5 percent in October. ČSSD would have received 5.5 percent in October but had 1 percentage point less in September.
The SPOLU coalition (ODS, TOP 09, KDU-ČSL), together with the Pirates and STAN, i.e. the parties represented in the current government, would get 41 percent of the vote share, Median reported.
“The survey was conducted during the entire month of October, so it may differ from election surveys that took place in a shorter period of time,” the agency pointed out.
Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents definitely wanted to participate in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, and another 16.5 percent were considering participation. Seventeen percent of the respondents are certain they will not go to the polls, and 7.5 percent would rather not go.
“Compared to the previous election model, we observe an increase in the willingness to participate in the elections. However, the declared turnout is usually higher than the actual turnout,” the authors of the survey noted.
From Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, Median interviewed 1,005 people in the Czech Republic aged 18 and over. The statistical deviation amounts to plus or minus half a percentage point for small parties and up to plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the largest parties.
