The new Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala speaks after Czech President Milos Zeman (right) appointed the ministers of new Czech cabinet, on December 17, 2021, at the Lany Chateau, Czech Republic. — AFP pic
PRAGUE, Dec 17 — The Czech president today appointed a new government led by Petr Fiala, a right-winger whose team will have to battle the pandemic and economic woes including soaring inflation.
Fiala’s centre-right cabinet is taking over from a populist centre-left government led by billionaire Andrej Babis, who fell out of favour over his handling of the Covid crisis.
“Allow me to congratulate you on your appointment,” President Milos Zeman told the ministers at the ceremony, adding he expected them to leave “something useful” behind.
“You have an opportunity to vanquish Covid and the energy crisis… and you’ll either win or lose doing that. I wish you the former.”
Comprising 18 members from five parties, including three women, the government has a 108-vote majority in the 200-seat parliament.
It will have to deal with widespread Covid-19 infections in the EU country of 10.7 million people, which is still registering around 10,000 new cases a day despite a recent downtrend.
Fiala’s team will also have to tackle soaring inflation and a spike in energy prices, as well as divisions in society caused by the pandemic.
His right-wing Civic Democrats forged an alliance with the centrist Christian Democrats and the centre-right TOP 09 party to edge Babis’s ANO party in a general election in October.
Their Together coalition then teamed up with a centrist alliance of the Pirate Party and the Mayors and Independents movement to form the government.
‘Hope for a change’
Fiala, a 57-year-old former political science professor, said he expected the government to have “lots of work”.
“It won’t be easy but I am convinced we’ll make it together,” he said at the ceremony held at Zeman’s residence at the Lany chateau west of Prague.
“Voters invested in us their hope for a change and for a better future. We want to work from the very first moment, we have the first cabinet meeting today.”
Zeman, who was expected to oversee the government talks, missed the build-up as he was hospitalised over serious liver problems on October 10, a day after the vote.
The 77-year-old veteran left-winger with a soft spot for Russia and China was discharged in late November, but was rushed back to hospital the same day having tested positive for Covid-19.
On November 28, he appointed Fiala as the prime minister from a plexiglass box installed in his home to prevent him from spreading the virus.
Zeman did not name the agriculture minister today, as the candidate is isolating because of Covid-19. He will be appointed later on.
Zeman had earlier voiced reservations about the foreign minister, Jan Lipavsky from the Pirate Party, because of his negative stance on Russia and China, but in the end decided to name him.
Zeman had also criticised Lipavsky’s “distant attitude” towards a regional group of countries also comprising Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, and towards Israel. — AFP