PRAGUE — The Czech Republic’s newly formed populist government under Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has successfully secured a mandatory parliamentary confidence vote, marking a significant geopolitical reorientation for the Central European nation. The lower house of Parliament endorsed the coalition government with a 108-91 vote on Thursday, granting formal approval to an agenda that diverges from previous Western-aligned policies.
The administration, emerging from October’s electoral victory by Babiš’s ANO (YES) movement, represents an unconventional alliance with two minority parties: the anti-immigrant Freedom and Direct Democracy party and the right-wing Motorists for Themselves. This 16-member Cabinet coalition shares notable admiration for former U.S. President Donald Trump and signals substantial policy transformations both domestically and internationally.
Foreign policy shifts include terminating financial assistance to Ukraine and rejecting European Union loan guarantees for the war-torn nation, aligning the Czech Republic with the positions of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovak leader Robert Fico. Notably, the government will maintain administrative oversight of a previous Czech initiative that secured 1.8 million artillery shells for Ukraine from non-EU markets, though without financial contributions.
Domestically, the coalition partners advocate controversial measures including the potential expulsion of approximately 380,000 Ukrainian refugees and rejection of the EU Green Deal environmental framework. The Motorists party, now controlling environment and foreign ministries, has proposed reviving the nation’s coal industry while the Freedom party questions Czech membership in both the EU and NATO.