Prague, April 17 (CTK) – President Milos Zeman now prefers a government without extremists and he considers the option that a caretaker prime minister should be proposed by the Chamber of Deputies unlikely, if not impossible, Pirates leader Ivan Bartos told journalists after meeting Zeman on Tuesday.
Bartos said Zeman expected the new government to be formed by the summer holidays.
Along with Bartos, the meeting was attended by Pirates deputy chairman Jakub Michalek. They asked Zeman about the formation of the government. Bartos said they had wanted to have first-hand information.
“It is good news for me that Zeman says a government without extremists was the option he prefers,” Bartos said.
The next government may also be backed by the Communists and the anti-EU Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD).
Bartos said Zeman still considered the Social Democratic Party (CSSD) “his own child,” due to which he preferred the CSSD being in the government.
Zeman stressed that if a deadline was set by the president, he would be very angry it the required time were not observed.
Bartos said Zeman had not said whether he would relieve Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO chairman) of the government-forming talks in such a case.
Zeman said he was ready to appoint a different representative of ANO as the prime minister, but the initiative would have to arise from ANO itself.
The Social Democrats are against Babis being in the government as he is criminally prosecuted over an EU subsidy fraud. However, ANO insists on Babis in the post of prime minister.
The Pirates asked Zeman whether he would assign a non-political person, proposed by the Chamber of Deputies, to form a government.
“Zeman sees the situation as highly unlikely if not impossible. Due to the balance of forces in the Chamber of Deputies, a cooperation of parties would be necessary for this, but the parties do not attend jointly any meetings, let alone looking for consensus on a caretaker government,” Bartos said.
