Czechs are voting in the final day of an election likely to return populist billionaire Andrej Babis to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth, while reducing aid for Ukraine.

The change from the centre-right cabinet would boost Europe's populist, anti-immigration camp and could harden opposition to the European Union's climate goals.

Czechs endured surges in inflation after the global pandemic and Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and have only slowly recovered from one of Europe's worst drops in real incomes.

That, as well as several corruption scandals, damaged Prime Minister Petr Fiala's Spolu coalition and its liberal government allies, who focused during its term on a gradual reduction of the budget deficit.

Babis, whose ANO party held double-digit leads in most opinion

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