Handover postponed due to Corona: election winner in the Czech Republic calls for an early conclusion

The liberal-conservative Czech election winner Petr Fiala has called for the handover to a new government under his leadership to be completed by mid-December at the latest.

Prague – In his view, a postponement beyond that would be “not good news,” said the chairman of the Democratic Citizens’ Party (ODS) in Prague on Friday. He pointed out that the country was in the middle of an “enormous corona crisis”. President Milos Zeman was originally supposed to appoint the 57-year-old as the new Prime Minister on Friday. Because the head of state tested positive for Corona, the date has now been postponed to Sunday, as the President’s Office announced. It is currently still being clarified under which hygienic conditions the ceremony could take place. The prerequisite is that 77-year-old Zeman can be discharged from the hospital on Saturday as planned.

The constitution provides that the previous government under Prime Minister Andrej Babis remains in office until the entire new cabinet is sworn in. Zeman has announced that he will hold talks with all ministerial candidates beforehand. The future five-party coalition of the ODS and four other liberal and conservative groups won 108 of the 200 seats in the House of Representatives in the election at the beginning of October. (dpa)