Czech elections - a tighter result than expected

It seems I wasn’t so wrong after all – as the Czech election results came in this course of the afternoon - and about 98% of votes have now been counted - in it became clear that the right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) have polled rather less well than forecast - they should have around 35% - and the Social Democrats (ČSSD) rather better (about 32.5%). These are historic high scores for both parties, but crucially the relatively narrow margin deprives the Civic Democrats of the possibility of forming a more or less coherent two-party coalition with the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL). They will have to bring in the Greens and – as the allocation of seats is still less than clear given the 14 regional constituencies – even this putative Blue-Green-Black coalition might lack a majority. Together the Social Democrats and Communists (KSČM) may jointly have a majority and even if the Communists hardline politics and nostalgia for the bad old days rules them out as a potential coalition partner, they be able to block legislation such as flat tax… The deadlocked Czech party system we know and love is back - how long will it be before the big parties start once again toying which the idea of bringing in a more majoritarian electoral system.

Basically, the Czech right has just scored one of the most unconvincing convincing victories of all time…