Post-election talks on the Czech Republic’s new government stumbled on Monday, as a hospital declared the Czech president unable to perform his duties.
Czech President Milos Zeman was rushed to a Prague hospital on Oct. 10, a day after the general election, which was won by the three-party center-right Together alliance.
He was expected to moderate talks on the new government, but his condition has instead led the senate to consider activating a constitutional article handing his powers to the speaker of the lower house and the prime minister.
Photo: Reuters
The constitution allows both houses of parliament to agree and, possibly temporarily, relieve the president of their duties when they are incapacitated, and split them mostly among the prime minister and the speaker of the lower house.
The old lower house’s term ends tomorrow, and any vote would be likely taken by the new house, which first meets on Nov. 8. The task of appointing the new prime minister would fall to the speaker of the new, opposition-controlled lower house.
“The Military University Hospital maintains that President Milos Zeman is not able to perform his duties because of his health,” Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil told reporters, quoting a letter from the hospital.
Vystrcil had asked the hospital to disclose details about Zeman’s health last week.
Local media said he suffered from serious liver problems, while Zeman’s team has kept silent about his condition.
The Together alliance has already started to work on the new government, together with the anti-establishment Pirate Party and the centrist Mayors and Independents movement.
The five parties now have 108 of the 200 seats in parliament and Together leader Petr Fiala is seen as the next prime minister.
Billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Zeman’s political ally, last week said he would stay out of the government talks as his populist ANO movement, which narrowly came second in the vote, would go into opposition.
Zeman, a 77-year-old veteran left-winger fostering close ties with Russia and China, had earlier promised to tap Babis to form the new government, no matter the election result.
However, his illness dealt a serious blow to the plan.
“Considering the character of his illness, the long-term prognosis of his health condition is seen as most uncertain,” the letter from the hospital read.
“The possibility that he will resume his work duties in the weeks to come is seen as not very likely,” it added.
Vystrcil said it was now time to “discuss when and how to activate Article 66 of the constitution.”
Babis faces charges over EU subsidy fraud and has angered the bloc over his conflict of interest as both a politician and a businessman.
He was also named in the Pandora Papers investigation earlier this month, as he had allegedly used money from offshore firms to buy property in France, including a chateau on the French Riviera.
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