Billionaire Babis' political comeback may set the country on a course away from its current strong support for Ukraine, towards a rapprochement with more Russia-friendly Hungary and Slovakia.
Ano became the largest party also in the 2021 election, but then failed to form a government.
This time, the party gathers more mandates, 80 compared to the current 72, but despite the great victory is a good distance from its own majority.
Wants to negotiate to the right
Babis says that he still aims to form a one-party government and that he wants to negotiate support from the far-right party SPD and the new, right-wing populist Motorists who gather 7.8 and 6.8 percent, respectively, reports the TV channel ČT24.
Sitting Prime Minister Petr Fiala's center-right alliance Together (Spolu) gathers around 23 percent. The alliance thus loses several mandates in parliament and seems to have to settle for 52 compared to the current 71.
71-year-old Andrej Babis was previously seen as liberal, but has moved his party Ano ("Yes" in Czech) further and further to the right.
Inspired by Trump
Babis has adopted a "Czech Republic first" stance inspired by US President Donald Trump. He is also on good terms with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovakia's Robert Fico – both of whom are much closer to Russia's Vladimir Putin than many other European leaders.
In addition to stopping military support to Ukraine, Babis also wants to cut back on the EU's fight against the climate crisis.
The polling stations opened on Friday and closed at 2 pm on Saturday.
Ano has been the largest in opinion polls before the election.
