Czech voters open Senate first round as Babis tests opposition majority

Czech voters went to the polls on 9 October 2026, opening a two-day first round of Senate elections in which 27 of the chamber's 81 seats are at stake, the Associated Press reported. The vote is the first nationwide electoral test for Prime Minister Andrej Babis since his ANO movement, running alongside the Motorists party and the eurosceptic SPD, won a decisive parliamentary majority in October 2025. First-round results are expected on 10 October; districts in which no candidate clears 50 per cent of valid votes will proceed to runoffs on 16–17 October. The election matters beyond a mid-term temperature check because the Senate is the only institution currently capable of obstructing Babis's legislative agenda.

What the Senate controls

The Czech Senate cannot initiate legislation but can return bills to the lower house, requiring a simple absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies to override. More consequentially, constitutional amendments require the consent of three-fifths of all senators — 49 of 81 — meaning that an opposition majority of 41 or more can block any constitutional change outright. The Senate also confirms the president's nominations to the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Audit Office and the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting, giving it direct influence over the judiciary and regulatory bodies regardless of who controls the lower house.

Before the first round opened, opposition parties that broadly support Ukraine and Czech EU membership held the majority in the Senate, defending 26 of the 27 seats contested this cycle, according to ElectionTracker EU. ANO itself held 15 seats and was defending one, while publicly targeting close to ten gains. Radio Prague International noted that in the most recent Senate elections, held in 2024, ANO had won eight seats, improving its previously marginal upper-house presence.

Coalition platform in context

Babis's coalition agreement, signed on 3 November 2025 by ANO, the Motorists and the SPD, assigned ANO eight cabinet posts plus the prime ministership, with Motorists taking four and SPD three, across a 16-member government, Euronews reported. The coalition controls 108 of 200 lower-house seats. Its programme commits to terminating Czech budget aid to Ukraine and ending Czech participation in the multinational ammunition initiative that Babis's predecessor had organised. The coalition also describes the EU's decarbonisation trajectory under the Green Deal as 'unsustainable'.

President Petr Pavel, who sits outside the coalition and has publicly supported continued assistance to Ukraine, occupies an institutional position in tension with the Babis cabinet on both defence and EU-climate policy. That tension has practical weight: under the Czech constitution, several judicial and oversight appointments require Senate confirmation, meaning the chamber's political composition directly determines whether the president can fill those vacancies with nominees acceptable to him or faces systematic rejection. The AP noted that Pavel 'remains a firm supporter of Ukraine following Russia's invasion', in contrast to the governing coalition.

Electoral mechanics and second round

Czech Senate elections are single-member constituency contests. A candidate who receives more than half of valid first-round votes is elected immediately; otherwise, the top two advance to a runoff. Historically, most districts reach the second round, and in the 2020 elections ANO won only one of the 27 seats then contested, Radio Prague International reported. Runoffs are scheduled for 16–17 October, meaning the full outcome of this election cycle will not be known for another week. Municipal elections were held simultaneously with the first round, though independent candidates and local civic groups traditionally dominate council results.

The stakes extend beyond domestic policy. The Babiš coalition has frozen Czech contributions to the EU solidarity fund for Ukraine, opposed further ammunition procurement under the Czech-led artillery initiative, and challenged the European Commission's net-zero industrial timetable in the European Council. A Senate majority would remove the upper house as a check on constitutional revisions that could entrench those positions, including proposed changes to the referendum law that would allow the governing majority to hold binding votes on EU treaty obligations. President Pavel, a former NATO commander and vocal supporter of Ukrainian sovereignty, has blocked several coalition appointments using Senate-confirmed nominations as leverage; ANO's Senate gains would reduce that leverage in future stand-offs, according to Radio Prague International.

Sources

• AP via Yahoo News — Czechs vote in Senate and local elections in first test for populist PM Babis
• ElectionTracker EU — Czechia Senate Election 2026
• Radio Prague International — Senate and municipal elections 2026
• Euronews — Czech election winner Andrej Babis signs coalition deal with right-wing parties
• AP via NewsTimes — Czechs vote in Senate and local elections in first test for populist PM Babis
• IFES Election Guide — Czech Senate election 2026