Czech Communists may not enter coalition government

The Czech Social Democratic Party will not sign agreements with the Communist Party of the Bohemia and Moravia, the deputy chairman of the Social Democrats Martin Netolicky has stated on air of the Prima TV channel, Radio Prague reports.

According to him, the Communists must ensure the new cabinet can pass through the vote of confidence at the parliament, but the ANO Movement is responsible for this, with which the Social Democrats are planning to join the coalition in order to form a minority government. At the same time, Netolicky rejected the possibility of any interference by the Communists in the process of nominating future ministers from their party, since they do not have the right to do so, being outside the created ruling coalition.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and ANO Movement leader Andrej Babis stated that early parliamentary elections are possible in the country. "If as a result of the upcoming inner-party referendum, the Social Democrats will not support the idea of their coalition with our movement or our future government will not receive support in the parliament, there will be no other option than to hold early parliamentary elections in the spring of 2019, conducting them with the elections to the European Parliament," Babis said in an interview on May 11.

Recall that in the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, held in October 2017, the ANO Movement won, after which President Milos Zeman told Babis to form a new government. But so far, the Cabinet of Ministers has not been established in the republic. On May 11, a draft coalition agreement was signed to establish a government with the ANO Movement and the Social Democrats’ participation, which was the result of three-month inter-party negotiations. According to the document, 5 out of 15 ministerial posts will be given to the Social Democrats. If the Social Democrats approve their coalition with the ANO in a referendum, Babis in June will try to apply to the parliament again for a vote of confidence for his government, that was pledged support by the Communists during the vote.