Populist billionaire Babis seeks comeback in Czech election

PRAGUE, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Czechs vote on Saturday in the final day of an election likely to return populist billionaire Andrej Babis to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth, while reducing aid for Ukraine. The change from the current centre-right cabinet would boost Europe's populist, anti-immigration camp and could harden opposition to the European Union's climate goals. Czechs endured surges in inflation after the global pandemic and Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and have only slowly recovered from one of Europe's worst drops in real incomes. That, as well as several corruption scandals, damaged Prime Minister Petr Fiala's Spolu coalition and its liberal government allies, who focused during its term on a gradual reduction of the budget deficit. Babis, whose ANO party held double-digit leads in most opinion polls, is an ally of Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament. Babis, who was previously prime minister from 2017-21, has taken an ambivalent line on aid to Ukraine – a departure from Fiala's government which has supported Kyiv throughout the war with Russia. Under Fiala, Prague set up the "Czech initiative" pulling together traders and defence officials to find millions of artillery rounds around the world for Ukraine with financing from Western countries. Babis has pledged to end the ammunition project, saying it is overpriced. ANO wants NATO and the EU to handle aid for Ukraine, and has abstained in some European Parliament votes supporting Kyiv and its bid for EU membership, which Babis publicly opposed in the past. Voting in the election started on Friday and was to resume from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. (0600 until 1200 GMT) on Saturday. Results are expected on Saturday afternoon. BABIS NEEDS ALLIES Opinion polls pointed to Babis's ANO party winning more than 30% of the vote, about 10 points more than Fiala's coalition but still well short of a majority. Given its poor relations with Spolu and its allies, ANO may need support from anti-EU and anti-NATO fringe parties – the far-right SPD and the far-left Stacilo! – for its preferred one-party cabinet. If some smaller parties fall below the 5% threshold to get into parliament, that could favour the government parties. Babis has rejected steps towards an exit from the EU or NATO, including calls for referendums, countering accusations by the current government that he would drag the country off its democratic pro-Western course. His ANO has promised faster growth, offering higher wages and pensions, and lower taxes and tax discounts for students and young families to draw supporters. Babis must overcome other hurdles to become prime minister, including conflict-of-interest laws as owner of a chemicals and food empire as well as long-running fraud charges related to drawing an EU subsidy over 15 years ago. He denies wrongdoing. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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