2021 Czech parliamentary election
Updated: Wikipedia source
Parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic on 8 and 9 October 2021. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected, with the leader of the resulting government to become the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Following the 2017 parliamentary elections, the country had been ruled by a minority government consisting of ANO, led by prime minister Andrej Babiš, and the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), led by interior minister Jan Hamáček, with confidence and supply support from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) until April 2021. The largest opposition party was the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), followed by the Czech Pirate Party. Other parties in the Chamber of Deputies included SPD, TOP 09, STAN, and KDU-ČSL. Babiš ran again as leader of ANO, and the main opposition parliamentary parties formed two electoral alliances, SPOLU and Pirates and Mayors (abbreviated to PirStan or PaS). ANO was front runner of the election, as it was polling first ahead of SPOLU and PirStan prior to the election. The result was a surprise victory for the liberal conservative alliance SPOLU, which received the highest number of votes, while the populist ANO received the highest number of seats. No opinion poll placed Spolu in the first place prior to the vote. It was the closest parliamentary election in the history of Czech Republic. The opposition parties won a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and agreed to form a coalition government with SPOLU leader Petr Fiala as the new prime minister. Traditional left-wing parties ČSSD and KSČM failed to reach the 5% threshold to win any seats in the Chamber of Deputies for the first time since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. The Pirates, which were one of the leading opposition parties, were heavily defeated due to preferential votes and won just 4 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Petr Fiala was appointed as the new prime minister on 28 November 2021 while rest of the new cabinet was appointed on 17 December 2021.