After the elections in the Czech Republic: Fiala tasked with forming a government

It is a largely symbolic step: the Czech President has officially tasked the conservative Fiala with forming a government. He had already signed a coalition agreement yesterday.

The Czech President Milos Zeman has tasked the chairman of the liberal-conservative Citizens’ Democrats (ODS), Petr Fiala, with negotiations on the formation of a government. This was announced by a spokesman for the president in Prague.

Zeman is currently in the hospital. He wants to keep his mandate until 2023. To this day, senators in the House of Lords considered invoking Article 66 of the Czech Constitution to remove the President from office. The plans for this have now been dropped.

The announcement of the government contract is largely considered a symbolic step. Fiala had already signed a coalition agreement for a future joint government on Monday with the heads of four other parties. According to the plans, the 57-year-old ex-minister of education from the second largest Czech city of Brno is to take over the office of prime minister.

Babis’ party strongest force

It had previously been speculated that Zeman could also award the contract to form a government to the previous incumbent Andrej Babis. Its populist party ANO had become the strongest single force in the parliamentary elections on October 8th and 9th, but the multibillionaire lacks possible allies to govern.

The future liberal-conservative coalition has a clear majority of 108 of the 200 seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies. It consists of Citizens’ Democrats (ODS), Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), the bourgeois TOP09 as well as the pirate and mayor party. One of its goals is to reduce the budget deficit.

The political scientist Fiala is considered a passionate supporter of the European Union – although his conservative ODS party also has prominent EU critics in its ranks.