A Warning Sign for the Czech Governing Coalition

While only one-third of seats were up for grabs, the verdict of the Czech Senate elections was crystal clear: governing party ANO (YES) managed to secure only one seat and its left-wing social-democratic coalition partner ČSSD went from 10 seats down to zero. The opposition parties performed well in the elections, both for the Senate and at the regional level, an encouraging sign for their prospects in next year’s parliamentary elections. How should we understand the outcome of the October vote and what can we anticipate of Czech politics in the upcoming months? We talk to Pavel Havlíček of the Czech Association of International Affairs (AMO) about the result of the elections and the possible implications for Czech foreign policy. Zuzana Stuchlíková, Associate Research Fellow at Europeum, explains to us what are Czechia's foreign policy priorities in the EU but also with particular reference to the rule of law. Finally, we discuss scenarios for Czechia with Martin Ehl, a Chief Analyst at the Czech daily newspaper Hospodářské noviny. Read Pavel’s electoral analysis for the German Marshall Fund: https://www.gmfus.org/blog/2020/10/13/electoral-litmus-test-survival-czechias-government Find recent articles about Czechia on Visegrad Insight: https://visegradinsight.eu/tag/czechia/ #Czechia #elections #foreignpolicy #EU