The President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman, announced today that in the new government of Prime Minister Petr Fijala, he will not appoint Jan Lipavski from the Pirate Party as the head of diplomacy because he considers that minister to be incompetent.
According to a statement on the website of the Presidential Office, Zeman is also bothered by the fact that Lipavski has an allegedly cold attitude towards the Visegrad Group and Israel, and supports reconciliation with the Sudeten Germans deported from Czechoslovakia after World War II.
Jan Lipavski completed only basic three-year studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University in Prague with a diploma thesis on the topic "Politicization of Russian energy supplies using the example of gas", and by the way, he is one of the authors of the changes in the law according to which, due to the security of the Czech Republic, Russian and Chinese companies, for which President Zeman actively and openly lobbied, are not allowed to participate in the tender for the extension of the Dukovani nuclear power plant.
"The President notes that the Constitution does not order him to accept every proposal that is proposed to him. On the contrary, the term 'proposal' implies that the proposal can be either accepted or rejected," the Czech President said in today's announcement.
Experts in constitutional law, appointed Prime Minister Petr Fijala and leader of the Pirate Party Ivan Bartoš, warned, however, that according to the Constitution, the head of state only appoints as a formality the minister chosen by the prime minister in his team, and the government is responsible for the minister, and President Zeman has no right to refuse to name Lipavski.
"In the past, as prime minister, Miloš Zeman himself advocated this position when he said that the president has no right to frame the government, which we agree with. The government is based on the votes of the people in the elections. Citizens need to know that they can trust that they are valid laws in this country, to live in a parliamentary democracy," said Bartoš.
Appointed Prime Minister Fijala met with Zeman on Tuesday and warned him in private that if he does not appoint the entire government as proposed, he has no other way out but to file a lawsuit to clarify the competences in appointing the government to the Constitutional Court.
"We are ready. It is necessary for the Constitutional Court to resolve once and for all the issue of jurisdiction when appointing the government," said Fijala on Twitter today.
Although Zeman's predecessors at the head of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus, had objections to some of the ministers before the appointment, especially Havel in Zeman's government, they never violated the Constitution and refused to appoint a minister.
According to unofficial information, due to President Zeman's defiance, the appointment of the entire government is not postponed, because due to the covid-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, inflation, the Czech Republic cannot afford the luxury of being governed for months by the government of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
The Czech media announced that the government will still be appointed at the end of next week, and that until the Constitutional Court resolves the dispute, other ministers will take over the vacant portfolios, specifically the diplomacy of the leader of the Pirates, Ivan Bartoš, although Zeman proposed to Prime Minister Fijala that he take over that portfolio. personally.
In the parliamentary elections on October 8 and 9 of the former prime minister, tycoon of agro-industry and chemical industry Andrej Babiš, the coalition of Fijala's conservatives, Christian Democrats and liberals Zajedno won, which the day after the election signed an agreement with another center-right coalition - independent mayors STAN and Pirates on the future to the government, which has a comfortable majority of 108 out of 200 deputies in the lower house.
The formation of the new government was delayed due to the fact that President Zeman, in critical condition due to worsening chronic liver disease, was transported to the hospital the day after the election, where he lay for seven weeks, including one month in intensive care.
Bonus video:
