2025 Czech parliamentary election

2025 Czech parliamentary election

3–4 October 2025
All 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 101 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Leader Andrej Babiš Petr Fiala Vít Rakušan Party ANO ODS STAN[a] Alliance SPOLU Last election 27.1%, 72 seats 27.8%, 71 seats 15.6%, 33 seats   Leader Tomio Okamura Zdeněk Hřib Kateřina Konečná Party SPD[d] Pirates[e] Stačilo![b] Last election 9.6%, 20 seats 15.6%, 4 seats 7.3%, 0 seats[c]
Incumbent Prime Minister Petr Fiala ODS

Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in the Czech Republic on 3 and 4 October 2025.^[1] All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Parliament, will be elected and the leader of the resultant government will become the Prime Minister.

Following the 2021 election, Spolu formed a coalition government with the Pirates and Mayors alliance, with Petr Fiala replacing Andrej Babiš as prime minister. ANO remained the largest opposition party, and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) also held seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

Political commentators and analysts expect the final outcome to depend on the performance of smaller parties and coalitions, such as Stačilo! and Motorists for Themselves. 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]

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.

Composition of the Chamber of Deputies^[7][8]

Party		Seats	+/– (vs 2017)
	ANO	72	–6
	Civic Democratic Party	34	+9
	Mayors and Independents	33	+27
	KDU-ČSL	23	+13
	Freedom and Direct Democracy	20	–2
	TOP 09	14	+7
	Czech Pirate Party	4	–18

The 2021 parliamentary elections saw the conservative alliance Spolu (consisting of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), KDU-ČSL and TOP 09) finish first with 27.8% of the vote. ANO finished second and liberal alliance Pirates and Mayors third. Freedom and Direct Democracy was the only other party to win seats. Spolu formed a government with Pirates and Mayors with ODS leader Petr Fiala as Prime Minister.^[9]

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.^[10]

The 2024 European Parliament election saw losses for the ruling parties, as the Czech Pirate Party lost two of its three seats, and both the Civic Democrats and KDU-ČSL lost one MEP each. TOP 09 retained both its mandates and Mayors and Independents gained one, resulting in a net loss of three seats for the ruling coalition.^[11]

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.^[11][12]

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.^[13]

The election was also successful for the Stačilo! coalition, which entered 12 out of 13 regional assemblies, winning 40 councillors.^[14]

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.^[15]

A few days later, Prime Minister Peter 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.^[16] 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.^[17]

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.^[18]

Pirate members then called for an internal referendum on leaving the government, which was supported by an overwhelming majority of members.^[19] The remaining Pirate ministers subsequently submitted their resignations.^[20] 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.^[21]

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.^[22][23] Babiš described Havlíček as a future prime minister of the Czech Republic.^[24]

On 21 March 2025, SPD, Svobodní, Tricolour and PRO signed a memorandum agreeing on cooperation in the 2025 parliamentary election, on the SPD candidate list.^[25] In July, PRO threatened to leave to joint list, due to low representation of its candidates on the electoral lists, and floated the idea of joining Stačilo! instead,^[26] but opted to remain in the nationalist list.^[27] Later, it was confirmed that each of the smaller parties had obtained only two candididates nation-wide (albeit all within the top three on their respective regional lists), with the rest of the spots taken exclusively by SPD. Svobodní voiced their disappointment with this result, claiming that "there was not enough time to put together a fairer lists", but that "the basic goals are met".^[28]

Stačilo! announced its regional leaders in March 2025 at a press conference in Ostrava. The nationwide leader was designated as MEP and KSČM leader Kateřina Konečná, who stated that she would resign her seat in the European Parliament if elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In the Central Bohemian Region, the list will be led by former MEP Jana Bobošíková, in the South Moravian Region by blogger Daniel Sterzik, known as Vidlák, in the Pardubice Region by Roman Roun, and in the Liberec Region by former KSČM MP Stanislav Mackovík.^[29]

On June 23, the Pirates and the Greens announced that the Greens will complement them with thirty candidates across eight regions, with the Co-Leader of the Greens, Gabriela Svárovská, running in Prague.

On 17 July 2025, Stačilo! and SOCDEM reached a mutual agreement, which will see the Social Democrats pursuit 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 the list in each region.^[30] This decision led to backlash from some SOCDEM figures and members, with a substantial drop in membership reportedly linked to the agreement.^[31]

Volt claimed that SPD and Stačilo!'s 'non-coalitions' circumvented the higher threshold in place for coalitions, and prepared to file a lawsuit.^[32] They later confirmed that they will challenge all lists separately, totaling 28 lawsuits total. Volt's co-chair Adam Hanka also stated that they are prepared to bring the case to the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic.^[33]

In reaction, Přísaha's leader Robert Šlachta said that his party will file similar lawsuits against the joint lists of Pirates and Greens.^[34]

28 lists registered to take part in the elections before the 29 July deadline.^[35] Out of them, 27 party lists, including unofficial joint electoral lists (SPD, Pirates, Stačilo and others), and 1 coalition list (SPOLU).^[36][37]

Respective regional courts had time to register or reject these lists until 15 August.^[38] 25 party lists and 1 coalition list were registered at the end of the process, as the Democratic Party of Greens and Yes, Better Czechia with Aliens both retracted their respective candidacies.^[39][40]