ANO leader Andrej Babis was appointed as Czech Prime Minister for a second term this morning, resuming the post after nearly four years, and President Petr Pavel is expected to appoint the rest of the government of ANO, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and Motorists within a week.
The three-party coalition insists on the list of ministerial nominees it has already approved, including the nomination of Motorist MP and honorary president, Filip Turek, ANO deputy leader Karel Havlicek told journalists after a meeting of the coalition council yesterday. President Pavel earlier expressed reservations about Turek.
Babis, a billionaire businessman and owner of the giant chemical, agricultural and food holding Agrofert, announced last Thursday how he intends to resolve his conflict of interest, which Pavel had made a condition of his appointment. The shares of Agrofert will be managed through a trust structure by an independent administrator, controlled by an independent protector. The company will not return to Babis even after he leaves politics, and his descendants will acquire Agrofert only after his death. Coalition partners have welcomed the announcement, but doubts persist among the opposition about the solution.
Babis was first appointed prime minister by President Milos Zeman in December 2017, but the minority cabinet composed of ministers from ANO failed to win the confidence of the lower house. He was appointed a second time by Zeman six months later, at the final stage of negotiations on forming a minority cabinet of ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD, now SOCDEM), which then relied on the support of the Communists (KSCM) in the lower house of parliament. Babis’s second cabinet was replaced on 17 December 2021 by the government of Petr Fiala (ODS).
Babis, who celebrated his 71st birthday in early September, becomes the oldest politician ever to lead a Czech or Czechoslovak government. He was already the oldest Prime Minister in the history of the independent Czech Republic, having taken office for the first time at 63 years old, surpassing Jan Fischer.
Babis entered politics in 2011. ANO was also part of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s cabinet with Sobotka’s CSSD and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) from 2013 to 2017.
After his appointment as PM today, Babis is to discuss the next steps with the president, Havlicek said, adding that he believes nothing stands in the way of the appointment of the new government early next week. Babis and Pavel will also discuss ministerial nominations, which Havlicek said will not be changed from the nominations approved by the coalition recently.
The prime minister-designate will, as usual, have the Hrzan Palace in Prague at his disposal if he wants to use it, cabinet spokeswoman Lucie Michut Jesatkova told CTK yesterday.
Babis has been waiting 66 days since the 3-4 October parliamentary elections to be appointed. The appointment of his predecessor Fiala four years ago took 50 days, then another three weeks for the rest of the government; this time, according to available information, it could be significantly less. “The date for the formation of the cabinet will be discussed (by the president) with the prime minister and will be announced after Andrej Babis proposes his government’s lineup,” said the Presidential Office (KPR) yesterday.
Pavel has been in talks with ministerial candidates since late November, speaking to all of them except for the Motorists candidate for environment minister, Filip Turek, who excused himself from yesterday’s meeting. According to Boris St’astny, leader of the Motorists parliamentary group, Turek is in hospital in Prague with a herniated disc and under strong pain medication. Turek said he would like to meet Pavel as soon as possible, as he wants to explain the allegations that have emerged against him since the elections.
Turek has faced criticism for controversial posts on social media. He has apologised for the remarks, but also denied authorship of some of them. Further controversies have been sparked by Turek’s asset declarations, and reports that he threatened an employee of the Saudi embassy eight years ago. He has also faced criticism for threatening an opponent in November that he would “do a Nazi salute in his face”.
Pavel has repeatedly said he has a problem with Turek’s appointment. Last week, he suggested that the best solution could be a power division lawsuit, whereby the Constitutional Court would clarify the president’s duties when appointing ministers proposed to him by the PM-designate.
According to leader Petr Macinka, the Motorists are not considering a lawsuit but do not want to withdraw Turek’s nomination. In order to avoid delaying the appointment of the government and to ensure that Babis will be able to attend the EU summit in Brussels next week as prime minister, there is the possibility of not filling the post of environment minister for the time being and putting another member of the government in charge of the office.
The Babis cabinet is expected to meet several more times before the end of the year, with representatives of the emerging government promising to reject the EU’s ETS-2 emissions plan and the migration pact at its first meeting.
The Chamber of Deputies could meet on 13 January for a vote of confidence in the cabinet. ANO, SPD and the Motorists have a majority of 108 votes in the 200-seat Chamber.
Shortly after the October elections, the incoming coalition parties agreed on the distribution of ministries – ANO will have eight seats in addition to the prime minister, SPD will have three ministers, and the Motorists four. The coalition agreement was signed by the parties on 3 November, just before the start of the lower house’s constituent session. Part of the agreement was that SPD would be entitled to the post of speaker of the house, to which MPs subsequently elected SPD leader Tomio Okamura.
