There was a European national election held this past weekend that has quite a few of the continent's news outlets buzzing, although there's not much available here on it.
Probably because the outcome simply wasn't appealing to the inclination of our press corps' direction, all things considered.
A billionaire, ex-premier, and pro-Trump nationalist named Andrej Babiš roared back into the catbird seat, nearly wiping the floor with his campaign opponents.
He certainly took his lumps campaigning, at one point in early September being attacked with a metal cane by an incensed rally attendee.
🇨🇿❕ The moment Czech opposition leader Andrej Babiš was attacked by a man with a metal crutch at a campaign election rally. pic.twitter.com/GL8lnMa93Q
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 2, 2025
The 71-year-old Babiš, head of the ANO (YES) Party and no stranger to the national stage, has pledged to work as a pro-Western, pro-European leader. Nonetheless, he has some positions that have Ursula von der Leyen and the Brussels Brahmins very skittish about this latest populist takeover.
For one thing, Andrej Babiš is considered too friendly with the leaders of Hungary and Slovakia, both of which have proven to be obstinately opposed to European plans for Ukraine and Russia.
Hungary's Victor Orbán has been a thorn in the EU's side for the longest while, and lately has been causing much grinding of teeth as he continually bucks plans to wrap Ukraine into the EU and has fought against using frozen assets to fund military aid to the invaded country. Long the lone outsider, Orbán gained an ally when Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was elected in 2023. Establishment fears are that, should Babiš be able to pull together a coalition - much like Germany, France, etc., losing mainstream parties are refusing to work with the election winners - that there will now be a stronger triumvirate in the eastern part of Europe, bucking the dictates and wishes of EU officials in Brussels.
...Europe has been watching the Czech elections with caution, as Babiš has vowed to scrap the ammunition initiative for Ukraine, challenge NATO’s plans to boost military spending, and confront the European Commission over the Green Deal.
Critics fear that if the right-wing billionaire regains power, the Czech Republic could become a new bête noire for the EU alongside Viktor Orbán’s Hungary and Robert Fico’s Slovakia.
“I believe that if we look at his statements and his allies in Europe — like Viktor Orbán and what he has done with Hungary — he [Babiš] will start pushing the Czech Republic toward the margins,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told POLITICO.“I don’t want the Czech Republic to end up on the margins of Europe, like what happened to Hungary or Slovakia,” Lipavský said. “And today there is a big difference between being part of a willing coalition or not.”
For his part, Babiš has made soothing noises in the EU's direction, but the issues he campaigned and won on in an election that saw the highest turnout of voters since 1998 aren't going to vaporize in Friedrich Merz-like Old Magoo maneuvers. Even as he stressed wanting a Europe that functioned, Babiš was thoughtful, reiterating his priorities, and that should have Brussels on a fainting couch.
For instance, he is going to reexamine the outgoing Czech administration's Ukraine armament policy, as well as insisting that Ukraine not be considered ready for EU membership until the war is over.
...A self-proclaimed “Trumpist”, Babiš campaigned on pledges of welfare and halting military aid to Ukraine, which made pundits worry the country might shift towards EU mavericks Slovakia and Hungary.
...Babiš, who was Czech premier in 2017-2021, is on good terms with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, who have maintained ties with Moscow despite its invasion of Ukraine.
But after meeting [Czech president Petr] Pavel, Babiš said labelling him as a potential troublemaker was “not fair”.
The 71-year-old, Slovak-born Babiš stressed he was pro-European and wanted “Europe to work well”.
He has, however, cast doubt on continued help for Kyiv in contrast with the outgoing centre-right government of Petr Fiala, which has backed Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in 2022.
“Every year, we send 2.5 billion euros in the budget to Brussels. And of course Brussels is helping Ukraine. So I think we are there,” Babiš said.
Babiš also told Ukrainian media that Ukraine was “not prepared for the EU” and that “we have to end the war first”.
He has pledged to review a Czech-led international drive launched by Fiala’s government, which has supplied 3.5 million artillery shells to Ukraine since last year.
Realism returns to 🇨🇿 Prague: when asked if he would support Ukraine’s EU and NATO accession, @AndrejBabis was clear: “We have to end the war first.” Ukraine is not ready for the EU — a message 🇭🇺Hungary has long voiced: peace must come before Brussels’ war-driven ambitions‼️ pic.twitter.com/Z8fJ9M03ib
— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) October 5, 2025
This resistant attitude also throws a wrench in EU plans to override Hungary's veto of the plan to allow Ukraine entrance into the collective.
...This echoes Orbán’s warning that Ukraine’s accession now would bring war to the bloc.
The Hungarian PM’s political director, Balázs Orbán, responded on Sunday that “realism returns to Prague,” adding: “peace must come before Brussels’ war-driven ambitions.”
Viktor Orbán himself has also celebrated the “good news for Europe,” saying: “Their victory strengthens every patriot in Europe!”
Brussels has been planning to move forward with Ukraine’s accession despite Hungary’s opposition by overruling the country’s veto, thus violating the treaties. It may find it more difficult to do this if resistance arises in Prague too, as it now seems it will.
For the Czech people to come out in such numbers and vote so decisively for ANO and Babiš speaks to the man's appeal to issues they are concerned with, not the loftier European elite goals that so dominate the campaigns of a Tusk or a mainstream German.
Some are calling it a 'peasants' revolt.' It sure looks familiar.
The victory of Czech populist leader Andrej Babiš’ ANO party in Saturday’s elections did more than confirm the populist trend throughout Europe. It reaffirmed that this dramatic movement is actually a modern-day Peasants’ Revolt.
It doesn’t matter what country one looks at or how economically developed that nation is. Parties that are in favour with the Brussels elite always win in cities and their near-in suburbs, while those denounced as “extremists” always prevail elsewhere.
Czechia’s results fall into that clear pattern. The establishment parties — the SPOLU alliance, STAN (Mayors and Independents) and the Pirates-Green coalition — won the vote in nine of the nation’s twelve largest cities. They also carried the day in the smaller communities surrounding those places, especially outside the two largest cities, Prague and Brno.
...This is exactly what we saw in this year’s Polish and Romanian presidential contests. Poland’s victorious populist Karol Nawrocki lost heavily in the large cities but carried the day thanks to equally large victories in communities with 20,000 or fewer residents.
Romania’s establishment-supported new president, Nicușor Dan, won all eighteen of that country’s largest cities, often with total exceeding two-thirds of the vote. His overall margin was only seven points because populist George Simion won large majorities in non-metropolitan regions and the nation’s vast diaspora.
The difference with our own casting off of the elitist coil is our democratic republic - our citizens' votes mattered. In a parliamentary system, such as the Europeans have and manipulate so effectively to their advantage, their votes may matter not a whit.
It was only two years ago that Andrej Babiš was defeated in an election, losing his prime minister's seat to pro-Brussels Petr Pavel, in what Pavel at the time called a 'win' for truth and justice.
🗣️Following his decisive victory over Andrej Babiš, the 61-year-old Petr Pavel told supporters that “values like truth, dignity, respect and modesty have won.” #CzechElections #CzechRepublic #Czechia #PetrPavel https://t.co/hvqvpHr0hh
— The European Conservative (@EuroConOfficial) January 30, 2023
And now, in such a short time, Andrej Babiš has been swept back into office by the Czech people in a resounding victory.
How did this happen?
It was an uprising against the continued contempt of the elites. A rejection of being told 'you have it great' and that your lying eyes aren't seeing exactly what they're seeing.
...Why did Czechs vote for the populist billionaire Andrej Babis? Short answer: because their level of poverty is worsening, and because they are nevertheless treated with contempt by the Prague elites who keep lecturing them that they have "never had it so good." As the author ironically notes, their response was to rush voting for Babis rather than "have it so good" for another four years 🥲 Babis might not do anything for them, but at least he doesn't treat them with contempt and gives signs that he is aware of their existence. Or to be more precise, he is better at pretending that he cares.
So we see here the same logic as with Trump. And no, Czechs are not now hysterically supporting Putin - it's rather, as the author also notes, that people at the periphery care more about their everyday (genuine) struggle than about geopolitics. Nor is Babis as pro-Putin and anti-EU as the international press has depicted him to be. Like Trump, he cares more than anything about increasing his own wealth.
Just like in the US and many other Western democracies, what this article shows is that the Prague elite has abysmally failed the working class in the past years/decades and is now paying the price. Spoiler alert: to call people "idiots" or "fascists", as so many liberal intellectuals do in the US, is only helping convince this electorate of the urgency to vote for anyone who is *not* part of this self-righteous, morally virtuous, and patronizing intellectual elite. What I just described applies more to the liberal left in the US, but in this case it works equally well in the case in outgoing Prime Minister Fiala, who is conservative. This shows that the question is becoming less one of "left" vs "right" than of "would-be enlightened elites" vs "would-be idiotic populist electorate."
Oh, exactly.
I wish the best to them in these very dangerous times.
If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. Ed, David, John, and I are here for it.
COME AT US, BROS!
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