The Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) party of billionaire and populist Andrej Babis has signed a coalition agreement with eurosceptic partners, moving closer to returning to power after winning parliamentary elections, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The 71-year-old Babis, who has already been the Czech prime minister, is joining forces with the Motorists for Their Own (Motos for Their Own) and far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) parties. The three parties together have 108 MPs in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.
Babiš said he intends to form a government by mid-December so that parliament can adopt the 2026 state budget in time and he can represent the Czech Republic as prime minister at the last EU summit of the year.
According to him, the third reading of the budget should take place on December 17. "We must accept the deficit proposal, even if the budget does not cover it," the ANO leader said.
In recent weeks, the outgoing government of Petr Fiala and the future cabinet of Babis have been arguing over whether the draft budget with a deficit of 286 billion crowns should be resubmitted to the new parliament.
The Fiala government, which relied on strict financial discipline and strong support for Ukraine, is likely to be replaced by a more populist and eurosceptic cabinet.
Babiš has already said that he will end the Czech initiative to supply Kiev with artillery shells and that he will not allocate funds to Ukraine from the state budget, promising that the money will be directed "for the benefit of Czech citizens."