PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s new government, led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis, won a mandatory confidence vote in the lower house of parliament on Thursday, with an agenda aimed at steering the country away from its support for Ukraine and rejecting some key European Union policies.
In a vote that every new government must win to govern, MPs voted 108 to 91 in favor of the coalition.
Babis, who served as prime minister in two governments between 2017 and 2021, and his ANO (or YES) movement swept the country’s October elections and formed a majority coalition with two small political groups – the anti-immigration Party for Freedom and Direct Democracy and the right-wing Self-Driving Party.
Both parties admire US President Donald Trump, who has assembled a 16-member cabinet.
Babis’ political return and his new alliance with two small-government newcomers are expected to significantly redefine the country’s foreign and domestic policies.
Unlike previous pro-Western governments, Babis has refused to provide any financial aid to Ukraine or provide the country with EU loan guarantees to fight the Russian invasion, joining Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Robert Fico.
But his government will not abandon a Czech initiative that last year alone procured some 1.8 million badly needed artillery shells for Ukraine on the market outside the EU, on the condition that the Czechs would only manage, not finance.
The Liberal Party believes that the Czechs have no future in the EU and NATO and wants to expel most of the country’s 380,000 Ukrainian refugees.
The Automobile Party, responsible for the environment and foreign affairs, has rejected the EU Green Deal and proposed reviving the coal industry.
