Fial’s government resisted the opposition’s no-confidence motion
Update: 02/09/2022 12:14
Issued by: 02/09/2022, 11:37
Prague – The coalition government of Petr Fiala (ODS) resisted the first opposition attempt to topple it in the House of Representatives today. The cabinet will thus continue to govern the country with the confidence of the lower house. The vote of no confidence was triggered mainly by the opposition movement ANO with the support of the SPD because of the affair already surrounding the former director of civil intelligence Petr Mlejenko and the government’s progress in solving the energy crisis. The vote took place roughly eight months after the appointment of the ODS, STAN, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09 and Pirátů cabinet. The debate lasted almost 22 hours and the entire meeting an hour longer.
84 members of the opposition voted for the vote of no confidence, at least 101 votes were required. Proposals as expected by ANO and SPD MPs. The 100 present legislators of the five coalition parties spoke against the vote of no confidence. The other 16 MPs were excused, eight each from the government and the opposition camp.
The president of the ANO club, Alena Schillerová, said after the vote that although the coalition MPs expressed confidence in the government, Fial’s cabinet has long lost the trust of the citizens. According to her, the government has forgotten that her job is to serve the people. “Follow the motto ‘Thank you for every new morning,'” she added. SPD leader Tomio Okamura described the result as bad news for citizens who, according to him, are getting into social and economic problems because the government has no solution to help in the energy crisis.
Deputies voted by name from the drawn member of the lower house, which became Libor Turek from the ODS. During the voting, it was found that TOP 09 deputy Martina Lisová acquired the surname Ochodnická by marriage, which was not recorded in the original documents. Ochodnická therefore had to repeat the vote under a new name. The House of Representatives completed the voting approximately 22.5 hours after the meeting began on Thursday.
Eight ANO MPs did not participate in the vote, including the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jana Mračková Vildumetzová. Five KDU-ČSL MPs, including deputy chairman Jan Bartošek, two STAN MPs and the chairman of the parliamentary economic committee Ivan Adamec (ODS) were absent from the government parties.
ANO representatives previously promised that the government would not attempt to express no confidence during the Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union. However, according to the leader of the movement and former prime minister Andrej Babiš, the situation has changed. Fiala responded that Babiš was trying to cover up his own problems. The accused ANO chairman objected to this and said that he was looking forward to the court in the Čapí hnízdo subsidy case.
Out of the 17 attempts to express no confidence in the government so far, only one was successful in March 2009. Four coalition MPs joined the opposition during the vote for Mirek Topolánek (ODS) during the Czech Presidency of the EU, so they received the necessary 101 votes. In the last election period, Babiš’s minority cabinet of ANO and ČSSD withstood three attempts to overthrow him.