Senate and local elections held over the weekend were dominated by the right wing ODS, which reached an absolute majority in Prague and another 5 cities. ODS has won in 96 cities out of the total of 133. At the same time, ODS’s 26 while its 26 members made it through into the 2nd round out of the total of 27 Senate seats; the 2nd round takes place on Friday and Saturday (27 and 28th October). In summary, ODS gained 36.2% while CSSD (Social Democrats) 16.63%; the Communist 10.79%, Christian Democrats (KDU) 5.76%, the Greens 5.04% and Independent 8.71%.
Our view: The turnaround of 46.4% is rather high compared to the historical figures and may provide some indications in case early elections are held. Note that the President indicated that he will name a person to form a Government following the Senate and local elections, i.e. beginning of November. W continue to see two possible solutions to the current deadlock; i.e. (i) early elections and (ii) CSSD may gain a majority on the back of support of the Communists and possibly some defaulting MPs from i.e. Christian Democrats (KDU).