Fiala said that if Zeman named the head of the court now, it would cause instability in the entire court system. Photo credit: Freepik.
Lany, Feb 6 (CTK) – Outgoing Czech President Milos Zeman will not name the new head of the Constitutional Court in the last month of his presidential mandate, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) said today after their talks.
Zeman was considering naming the successor to Constitutional Court chair Pavel Rychetsky, who will finish in his post in August. Zeman will be replaced as the head of state by president-elect Petr Pavel in early March.
Fiala said he asked Zeman not to name the new head of the court and the president complied with his request, although he is still convinced that it is possible from the legal point of view.
“He will not take this step,” Fiala told journalists. “This seems to me like good and important news,” he added.
Fiala said he would not give further information about his talks with Zeman on the issue. “It is the result that seems important to me,” he said.
Fiala said the outgoing president argued among other things that he named the rector of a university who would start occupying the post in mid-March, after the end of Zeman’s mandate.
Zeman said previously that there appeared to be no legal obstacle to his naming the new head of the Constitutional Court. Several constitutional lawyers disagreed with this opinion, however, as did newly elected president Pavel. If Zeman named the new head of the Constitutional Court,, Pavel said he would turn to the court to examine this decision for clarification.
At a press conference tonight, Fiala repeatedly said that if Zeman named the head of the court now, it would cause instability in the entire court system. “This step would be neither accepted nor clearly interpreted and it would cause a lot of problems. Even most constitutional lawyers expressed the view that an outgoing president should not take such a step,” he said.
Current chairman Rychetsky told Czech Television earlier yesterday that a new president would have to ignore the will of his predecessor if the predecessor appointed a new head of the Constitutional Court at a time when this post is still occupied.
Fiala said he discussed with Zeman the situation after the election of the new president. He said he would like the handing of power and office to happen correctly and without any problems and that Zeman seemed to wish this as well. “I believe it will eventually occur like this,” Fiala said.