Key leader hospitalized as candidates jockey for rule

PRAGUE — President Milos Zeman was rushed to the hospital on Sunday, a day after the country held parliamentary election in which populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ party surprisingly came in second and Zeman has a key role in establishing a new government.

The Czech presidency is a largely ceremonial post, but the president has the power to choose which political leader can try to form the next government. Earlier Sunday, Zeman, 77, met with Babis, his close ally, but the prime minister made no comment as he left the presidential chateau.

On Saturday, the centrist ANO (Yes) party led by Babis, a populist billionaire, narrowly lost the

Czech Republic’s election, which could spell the end of the euroskeptic leader’s reign in the European Union nation of 10.7 million people.

A liberal-conservative three-party coalition named Together captured 27.8% of the vote, beating Babis’ ANO, which won 27.1%. In a second blow to the populists, another center-left liberal coalition received 15.6% of the vote to finish third.

The winning coalition won 71 seats while its third-place partner captured 37 seats to have a comfortable majority of 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house of Parliament, and they pledged to work together. Babis won 72 seats, six less than in the 2017 election.

But Zeman earlier indicated he would first appoint the leader of the strongest party, not the strongest coalition, to try to form the government, which would be Babis. That would give Babis a chance to try to find a majority for a possible new government.

If he fails, as expected, and his latest government doesn’t win a mandatory confidence vote in the house, Zeman could ask him to create a new government again.

“It would be no surprise if the election’s loss wouldn’t become reality for Babis for the following months,” said analyst Petr Just from Metropolitan University Prague.

But unlike in 2017, this latest election produced a clear winner. Petr Fiala, the leader of Together and its candidate for prime minister, urged Zeman to accept the election results.

“The opposition has gained a clear majority in the lower house,” Fiala said. “We’ll see what steps President Zeman is to take but it’s essential that he cannot ignore that.”