The center-right Together coalition on Saturday narrowly won the Czech parliamentary election, ahead of Prime Minister Andrej Babis's ANO party, but failed to secure a majority, preliminary results show. According to the country's Statistics Office, Together — comprising the conservative Civic Democratic Party and Christian Democrats and the liberal-conservative TOP 09 party — gathered 27.78% of the vote. The bloc was one of two coalitions formed ahead of the election aimed at ousting Babis from power. The centrist ANO movement came a very close second with 27.13% of the vote, while the center-left coalition made up of the liberal Pirate Party and STAN — a group of mayors and independent candidates — came third with 15.60%. The electoral system means ANO should secure 72 of the parliament's 200 seats, ahead of Together's 71. The center-left bloc should have 37 lawmakers. But Babis, a populist 67-year-old billionaire, had led a minority coalition government with the support of leftist Social Democrats and the Communists. Both parties failed to gather at least 5% of the vote, according to the preliminary results, and should thus fail to secure any parliamentary seats for the first time. Together has already announced it will hold talks with the center-left bloc. ANO would then be in opposition. Babis will meet with President Milos Zeman on Sunday morning. The election, held across Friday and Saturday morning, took place in the immediate wake of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reporting details of Babis' financial dealings in a project dubbed the "Pandora Papers." The consortium's findings alleged Babis put over $20 million (€17.3 million) into shell companies to buy 16 properties in France. The Pandora Papers presented details of how many of the world's richest and most powerful people allegedly hide their wealth from tax collectors. Babis has denied wrongdoing. As he cast his ballot in the northern town of Lovosice on Friday, he had called for "stability in these unstable times". "We should not change the government now," he insisted. During his aggressive campaign, Babis portrayed migration as a threat even though his country is not a typical destination for asylum-seekers and refugees. He also condemned the 27-member EU's plan to tackle climate change. He also didn't rule out forming a coalition with Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), an anti-migrant, anti-Muslim party that wants to lead the Czech Republic out of the EU and to hold a referendum on its NATO membership. The SPD gathered about 9.6% of the votes, which should translate into 20 seats in the lower house — not enough for the two parties to secure an outright majority. —Euronews
