Czech Republic
New government appointed under Petr Fiala
The new Czech Minister-President: Petr Fiala. Photo: Petr David Josek / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The new government in Prague faces major challenges. And in the second half of 2022, Germany’s neighboring country will take over the EU Council Presidency.
In the middle of the fourth wave of corona, a new liberal-conservative government took over official business in the Czech Republic.
President Milos Zeman swore in the cabinet ministers under Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Friday at Lany Castle near Prague. The five-party coalition has had a clear majority of 108 of the 200 seats in the House of Representatives since the October election. Fiala succeeds populist billionaire Andrej Babis, who came under pressure over financial revelations.
“We are facing enormous problems – from Covid-19 to energy costs and general inflation,” said Fiala. The 57-year-old promised systematic solutions. “You can either make it or you can (politically) kill yourself – I wish you the former,” President Zeman told the ministers on the way.
The cabinet is about to decide whether the Corona emergency will be extended beyond Christmas. The Czech Republic is struggling with high levels of infection, which are only slowly falling. The seven-day incidence is 704 per 100,000 population. The former government had decided that all people aged 60 and over should be vaccinated against Covid-19 from March 2022. The new health minister Vlastimil Valek has already announced that it will reverse this.
The new government, which stands for an austerity course, has to put the vote of confidence in parliament within 30 days. In addition to Fiala’s Citizen Democrats (ODS), it also includes Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), Mayor’s Party (STAN), Pirate Party and the bourgeois group TOP09. For the first time since 2010 there is a European Minister, Mikulas Bek. The Czech Republic will take over the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2022.
For a long time it hadn’t looked like a quick handover of power. President Zeman was in the hospital for weeks and contracted corona after he was released. Then the 77-year-old raised serious concerns about the new foreign minister, Jan Lipavsky of the Pirate Party. After some turmoil, Zeman gave in. Lipavsky promotes, among other things, a self-confident demeanor towards Russia and China.
The Czech Republic is commemorating the 10th anniversary of Vaclav Havel’s death these days. The playwright, who died on December 18, 2011, was one of the founders of the Charter 77 civil rights movement in the former socialist Czechoslovakia. After the democratic change in 1989 he became first Czechoslovak and then Czech president. In Prague and other cities, round tables, concerts, film screenings and exhibitions commemorate the «poet president».