President Miloš Zeman is meeting Social Democrats chairman Jan Hamáček and the party’s minister of culture, Antonín Staněk, at his Lány residence over a dispute that could bring down the government. Mr. Hamáček says his party could walk out of the ruling coalition unless the president complies with his party’s request to remove Mr. Staněk from the post of culture minister and replace him with the party’s nominee Michael Šmarda.
The president has so far refused to do so, despite the fact that the PM officially requested his dismissal a more than a month ago. Mr. Zeman said his plan was to reconcile the current culture minister and the Social Democrat leader during the talks on Friday.
A meeting between the president and the prime minister at the Prague Castle on Thursday failed to bring any result. Mr. Babiš said he hoped the dispute would be resolved by the end of next week.
Via Radio Praha