Prague: Billionaire Andrej Babiš became another populist leader in Central Europe to stage a political comeback by winning big in the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election.

That result could steer the country away from supporting Ukraine and toward Hungary and Slovakia, which have taken a pro-Russian path.

With the results of 99.5 per cent of the polling stations counted by the Statistics Office on Saturday (Sunday AEDT), Babiš’ ANO (Yes) movement captured 34.7 per cent of the vote, soundly beating the Together conservative coalition of Prime Minister Petr Fiala that received 23.2 per cent.

Babiš was jubilant after his best electoral result, calling it “historic” for himself and his “catch-all” political group since it stormed into national politics in 2013.

“We want the Czech Repub

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