2025 Czech parliamentary election

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.

The 2025 election marks the first time that mail-in voting is permitted for citizens living or stationed abroad.^[2]

The constitution of the Czech Republic stipulates that an election to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech 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.

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.^[5][6] Babiš described Havlíček as a future prime minister of the Czech Republic.^[7]

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.^[8]

On 31 March 2025, Stačilo! announced MEP Kateřina Konečná as election leader, former MEP Jana Bobošíková as leader for the Central Bohemian Region, and party leader Daniel Sterzik as leader for the South Moravian Region.^[9]

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.^[10]

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 far-left 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.^[10][11]

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.^[12]

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

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.^[14]

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.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[17]

Pirate members then called for an internal referendum on leaving the government, which was supported by an overwhelming majority of members.^[18] The remaining Pirate ministers subsequently submitted their resignations.^[19] 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.^[20]

Parties and coalitions can field their lists until 29 July 2025. Respective regional courts will have time to register or reject these lists until 15 August.^[21]