The "Czech Trump" makes a deal with two Eurosceptic parties to govern

BarcelonaA shift to the right in the Czech Republic. The populist billionaire Andrej Babis, winner of the parliamentary elections this October —and nicknamed the "Czech Trump"—, signed a coalition agreement on Monday with two far-right parties that support leaving the European Union and NATO. This marks Babis's return to power—after four years in opposition—with the hardline anti-immigration and nationalist stance that characterized his ANO movement, distancing himself from Brussels with commitments such as not allowing the introduction of the euro in the country, a commitment included in the investiture agreement itself.

"I want to thank our partners for this agreement, in which we have agreed on our collaboration and [...] a joint government declaration," Babis declared as he signed the document in a ceremony broadcast live with the other two parties: Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and Automobil. Together, the three parties hold 108 of the 200 seats in the Catalan Parliament. Babis, who was prime minister between 2017 and 2021, and his government are expected to take office in early December. The future tripartite coalition opposes the European Union's Green Deal and, unlike the previous centrist government, has not set a deficit ceiling. However, this decision seems difficult to reconcile with the government's populist proposals: raising the retirement age to 65, cutting corporate taxes, increasing public sector wages, and subsidizing energy prices by billions of euros. Aid to Ukraine is in doubt.

The Czech investiture agreement also casts doubt on the delivery of aid to Ukraine, which has been struggling to survive on the front lines since Donald Trump's arrival at the White House. Babis, who has openly declared himself an admirer of the current US president, has pledged not to allocate any funds from the Czech budget to Kyiv, neither in the form of weapons nor humanitarian aid. The coalition is also not committing to any specific spending targets, unlike the outgoing government, which aimed to gradually increase military spending towards a new NATO target of 3.5% of GDP, plus an additional 1.5% dedicated to infrastructure improvements. For now, Babis has ruled out a Czech withdrawal from the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance: "Our orientation is clear, but we will not be there just for show... In both the European Council and NATO, we will fight for our interests," he said on Monday. But the Trumpian leader envisions European institutions where the weight of the member states is greater than that of the European Commission. In this sense, during this term Prague could be a thorn in Brussels' side when it comes to approving both green policies and further aid packages for Kyiv and sanctions against Moscow.

Despite being less pro-Russian than Viktor Orbán's Hungary Like Robert Fico's Slovakia, Babis is an ally of the Hungarian prime minister and a supporter of the Visegrad Group, which includes Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland. He also rejects the European Union's migration pact and considers the United States and Israel his primary allies.