The government of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš survived the first vote of no confidence. It was supported by coalition MPs, who on Wednesday after two days of negotiations they rejected the proposal of the opposition. According to the official results, there were 84 deputies for expressing no confidence. For the government to fall, 101 votes from the 200-member Chamber of Deputies were needed, informs the correspondent in Prague.
The vote took place after more than 22 hours of deliberation. It cast its vote altogether 183 deputies, while 84 were for and 99 against. The remaining deputies were excused. The Prime Minister was not present in the Chamber Andrej Babiš, who is on a foreign trip in Italynor the first deputy prime minister Karel Havlíček. This was criticized by the chairman of the ODS, Martin Kupka.
“This has never happened in the modern history of the Czech Republic. It is not just contempt for the Chamber of Deputies, it is primarily a message to the public. To people who don’t care and who made it clear that their rude politics does not take insults… you spat in the face of everyone who cares about good and decent politics in the Czech Republic,” he said after the vote. However, there were also members of the opposition, for example ex-prime minister Petr Fiala or the chairman of Pirates Zdeněk Hřib and others.
Robert Králíček, deputy for the ANO movement, subsequently responded to the chairman of the ODS. He declared that it was clear from Kupka’s Tuesday speech in the plenary session that as the opposition is emptied. “It was just a bunch of insults to Mr. Prime Minister and the government. But we had two days to tell the citizens what we are working on,” he said and defended the missing coalition MPs.
The extraordinary session of the Chamber was initiated by the opposition parties, which responded to the case of the SMS messages of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Environment, Petr Macinka, on the basis of which President Petr Pavel accused him of attempted blackmail. The chairman of the Motoristi sebe Macinka party tried to achieve in them in various ways, for the president to change his mind and appoint Motorist MP Filip Turk as Minister of the Environment. He refused this again at Wednesday’s meeting with Babiš.
Based on this, the prime minister declared the whole matter closed and stated that the Turk would not be in his government. The President expects a new nomination for the ministerial post from Babiš. However, the Motorists continue to refuse this, saying that they no longer want to give way to the president. Babiš admitted that there was a deadlock. He added that he would like to work for the citizens and not waste his energy on commenting on the dispute between Motorists and the president.
