Prague, Nov 28 (CTK) – The budget committee in the newly constituted Czech lower house will be headed by Miloslava Vostra (Communists, KSCM), it decided in a secret ballot at its first meeting on Tuesday, and the decision is yet to be approved by the house’s plenary session.
Vostra, who has been the committee’s member since 2006 and was its deputy chairwoman in the past, was proposed to the post by another KSCM deputy. She was the only candidate.
The KSCM has thus the second post of a committee chairperson, in addition to Stanislav Grospic, who was elected head of the mandate and immunity committee last week.
In the past days, some parties criticised the expected gaining of two posts of committee heads by the KSCM as incompatible with the principle of proportional representation.
There will be 18 committees in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies. Based on an agreement the nine parties in parliament struck last week, the election-winning ANO, which has 78 deputies in the Chamber, will head seven committees.
Four posts of chairpersons will go to the Democratic Bloc, which consists of four centrist and rightist parties with a total of 48 seats in the Chamber.
The Pirates (22 seats) and the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD, 22 seats) will head two committees each, as will the KSCM, though it has only 15 seats in the Chamber.
The Social Democrats (CSSD), also with 15 seats, will head one committee.
The division of the posts has mainly been criticised by the Democratic Bloc, which claims it should have one committee chairperson more at the cost of the KSCM.
The critics say the disproportion has been pushed through by ANO together with the SPD and the KSCM, which form a majority alliance in the Chamber.
