Ceske Budejovice, South Bohemia, June 11 (CTK) – The Czech Communists (KSCM) would be willing to tolerate even a one-colour minority cabinet of the ANO movement under certain conditions, Vojtech Filip, head of the KSCM that vows to tolerate a nascent cabinet of ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD), said today.
The CSSD is holding a party referendum on whether to form a minority coalition government on which ANO and the CSSD leaders agreed in May. The referendum runs through June 14 and its outcome is to be officially presented one day later.
Filip said the CSSD is very likely to form a government with ANO. According to his information, the internal referendum tends to support the party’s government entry.
“I have gained the information from [CSSD] chairman [Jan] Hamacek, who says the results have been 60-40 in favour of the [government] project so far,” Filip told journalists.
A total of the CSSD’s 930 local branches, i.e. 85 percent, have voted in the referendum already.
The KSCM previously set seven conditions for its toleration of the ANO-CSSD minority government in the Chamber of Deputies.
Filip admitted today that if the coalition government were not established, the KSCM would still be willing to tolerate a minority government of ANO.
“However, the format would be different as other ways would have to be found to gain the majority of 101 votes in a situation where ANO and the KSCM together command only 93 votes,” Filip said.
ANO, the clear winner of the October 2017 general election, commands 78 votes in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.
The CSSD and the KSCM have 15 votes each.
A one-colour cabinet of ANO leader Andrej Babis was established in December but failed to gain parliament’s confidence in January and continues ruling pending the establishment of its successor.
President Milos Zeman appointed Babis prime minister for the second time last week and said he expects the new cabinet to be appointed in the nearest weeks.