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The 2020 Czech regional elections: A story of a winner that lost
Abstract
The Czech 2020 regional elections were won by ANO, a party led by prime minister Andrej Babiš. ANO received a plurality of votes in 10 of the 13 regions, but joined the regional government in only 3 of them. This election report explains this puzzling outcome as a result of three main causes: the national political polarization which facilitated coordination between the fragmented opposition parties against the winner, the electoral collapse of the historical Left (the Social Democrats and the Communists), and profound shifts in the voter turnout of key demographic groups. Registering a sharp increase in the regional presence of the Pirate Party and moderate overall gains of the centre-right opposition, these regional elections amplified the polarization of Czech national-level politics. They also increased the regionalization of political competition.
Description
Keywords
Czech politics, regional elections, democracy, election results, electoral behaviour
Funding
Philosophical Faculty, University of Hradec Králové; Palacký University Olomouc (FPVC 2019/06)
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Type
JournalArticle
License
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Date
2021-07-08
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Book
Journal Title
Regional & Federal Studies
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
DOI
https://doi.org/10.82504/d9s5-yw15