Czechia in First Place? Foreign and European Policy Narratives in the 2025 Elections

The article examines the politicisation of foreign and European policy in the 2025 Czech parliamentary elections through an analysis of party narratives articulated in electoral manifestos and campaign discourse. The 2025 campaign was marked by a deliberate effort of incumbent parties to increase its salience and to frame geopolitical orientation and EU membership as existential choices. Building on the literature on the Europeanisation of Czech foreign policy and on party-based foreign policy narratives, the study analyses manifestos of all parliamentary parties (ANO, AUTO, Pirates, SPD, STAN, and Together) and one relevant extra-parliamentary actor (Enough!). Using a qualitative narrative approach, the article identifies dominant narrative patterns and maps their alignment with established ideational strands such as liberal internationalism, sovereigntism, Euro-optimism, and Euroscepticism. The findings demonstrate a clear incumbents–opposition divide. Government parties articulated coherent internationalist and Euro-optimist narratives, combining Europeanist and Atlanticist trajectories, whereas opposition parties offered more heterogeneous but generally reactive and Eurosceptic visions. The article contributes to comparative research on the domestic politicisation of foreign policy and the role of party narratives in structuring electoral competition.