The chairman of the ANO movement, Andrej Babiš, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Czech President Petr Pavel appointed him to the position on Tuesday at Prague Castle. However, Babiš does not yet have any prime ministerial powers, the government in the resignation of Petr Fiala still decides on the running of the country. It will disappear only when Babiš’s cabinet is appointed, informs the correspondent of TASR in Prague.
In short:
- Andrej Babiš was appointed Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
- Babiš’s cabinet is waiting to be appointed by President Petro Pavlo
- The Czech Republic currently has two Prime Ministers
- Personnel issues of the new government are still the subject of debate
The chairman of the ANO movement took his oath to the president for the third time on Tuesday. This happened for the first time in December 2017, when Miloš Zeman appointed him prime minister. However, Babiš’s cabinet at the time did not gain confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, so he had to resign. Zeman appointed Babiš for the second time half a year later.
Dual leadership of the government
Currently, the Czech Republic has two Prime Ministers. In addition to Prime Minister-designate Babiš, he is still Prime Minister in resignation Petr Fiala. His cabinet is also scheduled to meet this week on Wednesday. If the new government was appointed next Monday, as predicted by the vice-chairman of the ANO movement Karel Havlíček, it would be the last meeting of the Violet government.
After ending a series of informal consultations with the ministerial candidates of Babiš’s government on Monday, President Pavel said that he would announce the appointment date of his cabinet after the prime minister-designate brings him an official proposal for ministers. Havlíček said on Monday that the list will not differ from the unofficial one that the head of ANO brought to the president two weeks ago.
Personnel issues in the new government
Motorists added that they are not looking for a replacement for Filip Turk, who is a candidate for the Minister of the Environment. He is the only one who has not met Pavlo yet, he is hospitalized in the hospital. However, the president has repeatedly stated that the Turk should not be a member of the government at all, because his approach to law and rules is incompatible with this function.
President Babiša appointed nine weeks after the elections, after which the ANO movement, the SPD and the Motorists party created a majority of 108 mandates in the Chamber of Deputies. In the elections, Babiš’s ANO won a record 34.51 percent of the votes, the SPD movement did worse compared to the previous elections, despite the connection with other entities, and received 7.78 percent of the votes, and Motoristi, who ran for the lower house for the first time, succeeded with a gain of 6.77 percent of the votes.
