ANO leader and likely incoming prime minister Andrej Babis today submitted his proposals for the new cabinet to President Petr Pavel, with a number of familiar faces from the last ANO-led government. Alena Schillerova is to return to the Finance Ministry, Karel Havlicek to Industry, Lubomir Metnar to the Interior Ministry, Robert Plaga to Education, and Adam Vojtech to Health.
Newcomers to the ANO government include MP Ales Juchelka as labour minister, Zuzana Schwarz Bartipanova as regional development minister, and former social democrat Jeronym Tejc as justice minister, Babis announced.
The Motorists insisted on the nominees that had been speculated, but as a friendly step towards Pavel, Babis said they had proposed MP Filip Turek as environment minister and leader Petr Macinka as foreign minister, while originally they were supposed to be the other way round.
The culture minister is to be MP Oto Klempir, while the sports minister is to be Boris Stastny.
Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) have proposed former deputy chief of the general staff Jaromir Zuna as defence minister, former head of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund Martin Sebestyan as agriculture minister, and former head of Czech Railways Ivan Bednarik as transport minister.
Babis did not comment on most of the nominations individually. “Unlike this government (of Petr Fiala, ODS), in which there is no competent minister, our ministers are very competent. There is not a single one in Fiala’s government who is competent for a given ministry, it looks like that,” Babis said.
The president will start meeting the ministerial candidates from Friday, Babis said. “Consultations will begin and the president has promised that they will take place within two weeks,” he said. He added that the new government could be formed by mid-December, which would correspond to the time of the last cabinet four years ago. Babis did not discuss with Pavel today when he would appoint him prime minister.
The president is asking Babis to disclose how he will handle the conflict of interest over his ownership of Agrofert before the appointment. “It is still the case that I will say it publicly, but we have not agreed on a specific date,” he said. He plans to tell his story in politics at Thursday’s urgent lower house session on the conflict of interest, called by the future opposition, but he is not going to obstruct, he said.
