Hradec Kralove, East Bohemia, April 28 (CTK) – The Social Democrat (CSSD) central executive committee acknowledged that the party will keep negotiating with the ANO movement about the formation of a coalition government supported by the Communists (KSCM), despite criticism from some committee members today.
The committee approved that the final decision on a possible government alliance with ANO would be made by the CSSD members in a special vote to be taken by the end of June.
CSSD chairman Jan Hamacek told journalists that the vote will be valid if at least one fourth of the party’s members take part in it.
The CSSD election congress held in February decided that a possible government with ANO must be confirmed by the rank and file in an internal vote.
The vote would be secret and organised by the party’s local branches.
Hamacek said he would issue a recommendation on how to vote according to the results of the negotiations with ANO. The CSSD leadership would formulate the question for the internal referendum and set the date of the vote.
One week ago, the CSSD leadership accepted the ANO offer to reopen the negotiations about forming a joint government, even though ANO rejected the CSSD demand that no prosecuted person is among the government’s ministers.
ANO leader Andrej Babis, who heads the current ANO minority cabinet and wants to be the head of the next cabinet, is prosecuted over a suspected EU subsidy fraud.
The Social Democrats want the whole cabinet to resign if all CSSD ministers left their posts.
ANO offered five of the 15 ministries to the CSSD. According to speculations, Hamacek would be interior minister.
The critics of the government cooperation with ANO consider this condition insufficient.
The CSSD senators and some of its regional governors opposed the planned government alliance with ANO. The senators recalled that ANO joined forced with the KSCM and the SPD in parliament in key votes and pushed through nominations and issues that the CSSD opposed.
The negotiations between ANO and the CSSD will continue next week.
