The main issues in the election are expected to be the economy, inflation, foreign policy and defence spending.[2][3][4][5]
The 2025 election marks the first time that mail-in voting is permitted for citizens living or stationed abroad.[6]
Electoral system
The Constitution of the Czech Republic stipulates that an election to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Parliament, must be held every four years. The executive government is answerable to the Chamber of Deputies and remains in power only as long as it commands the confidence of the majority of its members. Article 19(1) of the Constitution states that any citizen of the Czech Republic over the age of 21 years old is eligible to serve as a Member of Parliament.
All 200 deputies are proportionally elected on open lists in 14 electoral regions, which follow the borders of the 13 Czech regions and the capital city of Prague. Seats are distributed to the regions based on the number of valid votes in each region.
Mandates are assigned using the largest remainder method, using the Imperiali quota in first round and Hagenbach-Bischoff quota in second round. In first round, mandates are divided between each region. Seats not assigned in the first round are then transferred to a national second round, where the sum of parties' remaining votes from all regions are used.
To be eligible for seats, a single party must earn at least 5% of the national vote, a coalition of two parties needs 7%, and a coalition of three or more parties requires 11%, unless only one group makes it into the Chamber.[7]
Postal voting
For first time in Czech history, citizens living abroad will be able to vote via mail-in voting, following an amendment to the electoral law in 2024.[8] Several media sources, including Seznam Zprávy and e15, noted that the number of citizens registered for postal voting was far lower than the original estimates from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[9][10]
Non-coalitions
Before the election, three candidate lists (the Stačilo! alliance; the joint list of the Pirates and Greens; and the joint list of SPD, Tricolour, PRO and Svobodní) were accused of creating "non-coalitions", as they registered as single party lists rather than coalitions in order to pass a lower electoral threshold. This practice was criticised by some other parties,[11] political analysts from Seznam Zprávy[12] and Reflex,[13][14] and academics from the Charles University,[15] who suggested that these "non-coalitions" were circumventing the electoral law.
Soon after the 2021 elections, the leader of the Mayors and Independents, Vít Rakušan, said that his party would run in the next elections as a single party rather than continue their alliance with the Pirate Party. According to internal Pirate Party analysis, the Mayors violated their joint agreement by asking their voters to give their candidates preference votes on the joint list, which resulted in just four Pirate MPs being elected.[19]
Among the parliamentary opposition, ANO gained one mandate compared to the previous election, and SPD lost one, just passing the parliamentary threshold. Most of the gains went to populist extra-parliamentary parties, with two MEPs each won by Stačilo! and the right-wing populist Přísaha and Motorists, whose leader Filip Turek had faced neo-nazism allegations just days before the election. The election also saw the worst result ever for Social Democracy, which won just 1.8% of the vote, far below the threshold.[20][21]
The 2024 Czech regional elections saw a near-total wipeout for the Pirate Party, the smallest party in the government coalition, which surpassed the threshold in just one out of 13 contested regions and lost all but four councillors nationwide. This led to the resignation of the party leadership and the party's departure from the Fiala cabinet.[22]
The election was also successful for the Stačilo! coalition, which entered 12 out of 13 regional assemblies, winning 40 councillors.[23]
Pirate Party departure from the Fiala Government
Following the underwhelming results in the regional elections, several regional branches of the Pirate Party called for the resignation of the national leadership, led by Ivan Bartoš, who said that he would respect the results of an internal referendum on that matter. However, there were few calls to leave the Fiala Cabinet.[24]
A few days later, Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced that he would propose the dismissal of Bartoš as Minister of Regional Development and Deputy Prime Minister for Digitalisation, due to Bartoš's failure to roll out the digitalisation of construction permits. Fiala asked the Pirate Party to propose a new candidate for Minister of Regional Development.[25] This decision came as a surprise to Bartoš and the Pirate Party leadership. Bartoš stated that he had a meeting with Fiala earlier that day, where his dismissal had not been mentioned, and that he learned about his dismissal through a telephone call. The rest of the Pirate Party leadership expressed anger at not having been consulted first, as required by the coalition agreement.[26]
Fiala latter confirmed that he had announced his decision to Bartoš through a call. He said he hoped the Pirates would remain in the government, and that he had not broken the coalition agreement, as the whole Pirate's leadership resigned and remained as caretaker leadership until new leadership elections could be held.[27]
Pirate members then called for an internal referendum on leaving the government, which was supported by an overwhelming majority of members.[28] The remaining Pirate ministers subsequently submitted their resignations.[29] However, Fiala did not accept the resignation of Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, who was asked to finish his term as an independent, as a joint nominee of all four remaining coalition parties.[30]
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Campaign
Pre-campaign period and cooperation agreements
On 8 February 2023, Babiš announced he would limit his role within ANO. He would remain as an MP and the leader of the party, while Karel Havlíček and Alena Schillerová would become the primary faces of the party, with Havlíček becoming leader of the shadow cabinet.[31][32] Babiš described Havlíček as a future prime minister of the Czech Republic.[33]
On 21 March 2025, SPD, Svobodní, Tricolour and PRO signed a memorandum agreeing to cooperate in the 2025 parliamentary election on the SPD candidate list.[34] In July, PRO threatened to leave the joint list, citing insufficient representation of its candidates on the electoral lists, and floated the idea of joining Stačilo! instead.[35] They later decided to remain on the SPD list.[36] It was subsequently confirmed that each of the smaller parties had only two candidates across all the regional lists (albeit all in the top three candidates in their respective regions), with the rest of the places taken by SPD candidates. Svobodní voiced their disappointment at this arrangement, claiming that "there was not enough time to put together fairer lists", but that "the basic goals are met".[37]
On 23 June, the Pirates and the Greens announced that 30 Green candidates would be included on Pirate Party candidate lists in eight regions, with the Greens' co-leader Gabriela Svárovská[cs] running in Prague.
On 17 July 2025, Stačilo! and SOCDEM reached an agreement which would see the Social Democrats endorsing the coalition's manifesto and their candidates running on the Stačilo! list. Jana Maláčová will lead the list in Prague, Jiří Nedvěd in the Karlovy Vary Region, and Lubomír Zaorálek will take the second spot on the list in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Under the agreement, SOCDEM will be represented by two candidates on each regional list.[39] This decision triggered a backlash from SOCDEM figures and members, with a substantial drop in membership reportedly linked to the agreement.[40]
Lawsuits against 'non-coalitions'
Volt claimed that SPD and Stačilo!'s 'non-coalitions' circumvented the higher threshold in place for coalitions, and prepared to file a lawsuit.[41] They later confirmed that they would bring 28 lawsuits in total, challenging each regional list separately. Volt co-leader Adam Hanka[cs] also stated that the party was prepared to bring the case to the Czech Constitutional Court.[42] By 27 August, 3 regional courts had thrown out the case as a final ruling, saying that the 'non-coalitions' were legitimate.[43]
In response, Přísaha filed a similar lawsuit against the Pirates' candidate list in the Ústí nad Labem region on 20 August,[44] related to the inclusion of Green Party members.[45]
Possible coalitions
In August, all parties of the original Fiala cabinet (SPOLU, STAN and the Pirates) declared that they were not willing to work with ANO in any future government, and also rejected cooperation with Stačilo! or SPD.[46][47] Commentators said that it would be possible to reform the SPOLU-STAN-Pirates government if the parties won enough seats to do so. They also noted that the Pirates would have a bigger influence in this scenario, as they would have won more seats by passing the electoral threshold running as a single party.[48]
By the same token, the two parliamentary opposition parties (ANO+SPD) ruled out working with any of the parties in the existing government, while ANO's leader was seen as the most likely Prime Minister after the elections.[49][50]
However, commentators suggested that any ANO-led government would be hard to form and maintain, as Babiš would be forced to cooperate with parties on either the far-right or the far-left. In the case of a strong result for both Stačilo! and SPD, Babiš would be forced to form a government consisting of eight parties, the most in Czech history (surpassing the record set by the outgoing government, which originally consisted of five parties).[51][52]Czech Radio reported that Babiš was fearful of "lost votes", that would go to parties finishing below the electoral threshold. In 2021, there was over a million such votes, over a fifth of the total votes cast.[53] It was reported that Babiš had pushed for electoral cooperation with Stačilo! and Social Democracy, and a recreation of the Přísaha and Motorists coalition. A one-party government was seen as the preferred option for ANO after the election, but it was considered unlikely that the party would win a majority on its own.[54] The Motorists were perceived as the most preferred coalition partner for Babiš,[54] although according to opinion polls it was uncertain whether they would pass the 5% threshold. It was also suggested that the most likely outcome of the election would be a single-party ANO minority government, supported by either SPD, Stačilo!, or both.[55][46][56][57] Some contributors for Foreign Affairs and Seznam Zprávy also warned of the possibility of far-right parties being included in the next government.[58][59]
President Pavel's opposition to anti-NATO/EU ministers
In May, President Petr Pavel said that he may refuse to appoint ministers who support the Czech Republic's withdrawal from NATO or the European Union.[60][61] In June, he repeated this position, stating that if Stačilo! were in a position to set the country's foreign policy, he would consider this a "direct threat for this country", and that he would not appoint Stačilo! nominees to any ministry with responsibility for "security or foreign policy". He also confirmed that the same would apply to any SPD candidates.[62][63][64]
Project Karel
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In July 2025, ANO parliamentarian Pavel Růžička[cs] released alleged leaked sections of documents from the Czech Armed Forces, which he claimed showed evidence of the government using the army to spy on politicians. The documents had initially been cited by pro-Russian media organisations.[65][66] The military exercise, termed 'Project Karel',[67] was an effort in 2024 by the Czech army to train their skills at identifying Russian election manipulation, following warnings that Russia would attempt to influence the country's parliamentary elections.[66][67] The exercise involved collecting data from social networks about politicians, for which some soldiers expressed concerns.[67]
Following Růžička's posts, the army investigated the leak, concluding that it came from the Ministry of Defence,[65] however Růžička refused to comment about where he got his information from.[66]
The army denied any illegal surveillance of opposition politicians,[66] and an investigation by the media organisation Seznam Zprávy suggested that the leaked documents were 'distorted' and 'out of context'.[66] However, Růžička claimed that the soldiers had approaced him concerned about the legality of the project's actions, and he claimed to have evidence that the army was operating in a legal 'grey zone'.[68] Army representatives filed a criminal complaint against Růžička, and Růžička himself also filed a criminal complaint.[69]
September assault on Andrej Babiš
On 1 September, Andrej Babiš was physically assaulted at a pre-election rally in the village of Dobrá.[70] An elderly man struck Babiš on the head and the back with crutch. The police apprehended the perpetrator at the scene,[71] and investigated the attack as an act of hooliganism.[72]
Babiš was taken to the hospital,[73] but was discharged and stated on social media that he would likely be fine.[74] In another statement on social media the day after the attack, Babiš confirmed that he is awaiting further medical examinations.[75] Following the attack, Babiš cancelled the following day's election rallies.[71]
Babiš's electoral opponents condemned the attack, including SPOLU leader and PM Fiala.[76]
Campaign incidents
In August 2025 an audio recording from 2023 was published by the media, in which Margita Balaštíková[cs], a member of parliament and candidate for ANO, expressed intent to hire someone to kill her ex-husband's new partner's dog and damage her ex-husband's business.[77] Balaštíková was removed from the list of candidates.[78]
Pavel Jajtner, a physician from Znojmo, was a candidate ranked 13th on the SPOLU coalition's candidate list. Investigative journalists discovered that he had failed to provide adequate care for newborns during his night shift at Nemocnice Znojmo[cs] in January 2022.[79] A confidentiality agreement was reached among regional representatives and family members. Marek Výborný, the leader of the KDU-ČSL party for which Jajtner was originally running, stated that he would investigate the matter on the same day. The following day, Jajtner withdrew from the candidate list.[80]
Parties
28 lists were submitted to take part in the elections before the 29 July deadline,[81] of which one was a coalition list (SPOLU) and 27 were party lists (including unofficial joint electoral lists).[82][83] The respective regional courts had time to register or reject these lists until 15 August.[84] 25 party lists and one coalition list were registered at the end of this process, as the Democratic Party of Greens and 'Yes, Better Czechia with Aliens' both withdrew their candidate lists.[85][86]
Deník N noted that the number of candidates was the lowest since 1998, due to the numerous electoral alliances. The share of women on the lists was 31.3%, a slight drop from 2021. Pirates had the largest number of female candidates, while Motorists for Themselves had the least. The average age of candidates was 49.2 years, the highest in the history of the Czech Republic. The youth-oriented Generation Movement had the youngest list, while the Right Bloc's candidates had the highest average age.[87]
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