Both Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová as well as Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger congratulated the Czech Republic on its high voter turnout of 65.43% in the parliamentary elections which took place last weekend.
"I congratulate and wish a successful and conflict-free process of forming a governing coalition," Čaputová noted. "I wish them to form a government that will govern the Czech Republic well," said Heger, noting that the Czech Republic is an important partner for Slovakia. "They are our closest friends and brothers," stated the PM.
Asked about what impact the results of the Czech parliamentary election will have on the Visegrad Group (V4 - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), the premier said that time would tell. At this point, however, he does not want to make predictions. "Relations in the V4 have been good for a long time. They are based on long-term cooperation. I don't see a problem with that and I think it will only strengthen," stated Heger.
"We're looking forward to cooperating with the new government of the Czech Republic. We have many common problems on which we can cooperate effectively," said Investment Minister Veronika Remišová. Environment Minister Ján Budaj wrote on a social network that the election in the Czech Republic had averted the threat of the destruction of the European Union through the V4 [the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia]. "The forces of the past are losing. We are beyond the turning point," he said. According to him, the country is ending with the long-term dominance of a populist party, based on the "values" of normalisation communism.
The coalition 'We Are Family' party believes that voters in the Czech Republic decided on the basis of sufficient information, choosing the next course of the country.
The winner of the Czech parliamentary election is the TOGETHER coalition (composed of three parties ODS, KDU-CSL and TOP 09) garnering 27.79% of the vote and winning 71 seats in Parliament. The centrist movement ANO (YES) of incumbent Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who is of Slovak origin, follows on 27.12% (however with 72 seats), ahead of a liberal coalition called Pirates and Mayors on 15.62% (37 seats) and a far-right, Eurosceptic party called Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) headed by the businessman of Czech-Japanese-Korean origin Tomio Okamura on 9.56% (20 seats).
