Czechs began voting on Friday in municipal and Senate elections seen as the first major electoral test of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s government since his ANO party won the October 2025 parliamentary election. Voters are choosing local councils and 27 members of the 81-seat Senate, where opposition parties hold a majority. Senate runoffs are scheduled for October 16–17 in constituencies where no candidate wins an outright majority. A September parliamentary voting-intention poll by NMS put ANO at 31%, while its junior coalition partner, the Motorists, stood at 4.4%, below the 5% threshold for a party to enter the lower house. The Civic Democratic Party, led by Martin Kupka, faces competition for opposition voters from Vít Rakušan’s Mayors and Independents. Housing shortages are among the issues shaping the campaign. Babiš governs with the Motorists and the far-right SPD. President Petr Pavel briefly returned from a vacation in Morocco to vote in Černouček after widespread criticism of his planned absence.
