Bratislava, June 7 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman has decided that Andrej Babis, the leader of ANO, will be at the head of the Czech government and he will not stop insisting on this, the Slovak Pravda writes today.
The support by the Communists, Zeman himself ruled out when he headed the Czech Social Democrats (CSSD) himself, is no longer a problem, Pravda writes.
On Wednesday, Zeman named Babis the Czech prime minister for the second time. Now he is conducting talks with the Social Democrats on a new government that is to be backed by the Communists.
The daily Sme writes that it is Zeman who is dictating the conditions.
“Zeman wants to leave behind him a political scene in which nothing will be as before,” Sme writes.
“This plan seems to have better chances of succeeding than Babis’s eloquent promises of an efficient, but still welfare state, controlled in a managerial way. All ANO has achieved is its ‘cleansing’ of the civil service from the people he disliked,” it adds.
Zeman does not need any results from Babis since Babis himself is a result for the head of state.
Pravda writes that the people who had a strong case to be afraid of new elections eventually agreed with the cooperation with ANO.
“Exactly like expected by Zeman who was persistently, again and again, sending Babis to the ring to gain the upper hand. Babis, named by Zeman again as the prime minister, will evidently be ruling along with the diminishing CSSD and with support by the Communists who were almost as routed as the Social Democrats [in the October 2017 general elections],” Sme writes.
Sme stresses that Zeman named Babis as the prime minister even before the end of the Social Democrat referendum on whether the party should join the government.
“While the Social Democrats are making the decision on whether to go to the government along with Babis, Zeman has sent them the message that they do not decide on the prime minister,” Sme writes.
One can only with difficulties guess the outcome of the referendum because the party is split over the issue, it adds.