Prague – MPs of the opposition movement ANO will call a meeting in the House of Representatives to express no confidence in the coalition government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS). After the meeting of the club, its president Alena Schillerová told journalists. The reason is the affair surrounding the contacts of the new director of civil intelligence, Petr Mlejenko, with businessman Michal Redl, accused in the Dozimetr corruption case, and the complex economic situation, which, according to representatives of ANO, is not being resolved by the cabinet. Given the parliamentary coalition majority, it is likely that the attempt to express no confidence in the cabinet will not be successful.

A motion of no confidence in the government must be signed by at least 50 MPs. The ANO club has 72 members. Schillerová stated that, so far, there are more than 40 signatures of deputies who participated in the group’s meetings under the request. He expects more signatures on Friday and assumes that SPD deputies will also sign. The club wants to submit the request for convening the meeting as soon as possible. The Speaker of the House Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09) must then convene it immediately according to the rules of procedure.

“It is impossible to turn a blind eye to the fact that one of the most important intelligence units is headed by an untrustworthy person, that he was pushed there by the Minister of the Interior (Vít Rakušan), who is also the head of the STAN movement, which is torn by one case after another,” said Schillerová. According to her, the prime minister is “burying his head in the sand and trying to keep quiet about the whole case”.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives for ANO Karel Havlíček pointed to the steep rise in gas and electricity prices, while according to him the government measures will have only a minimal impact on households and practically no impact on businesses and companies. “We are truly the worst in the entire European Union today in terms of support,” he said.

Representatives of the ANO movement previously promised that they would not attempt to express confidence in the government during the Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union. However, the leader of the movement, Andrej Babiš, has previously said that the scandal surrounding the director of the Office for Foreign Relations and Information, Mlejnka, is unprecedented. According to Havlíček, many things have changed since then, also due to the energy crisis and, according to him, inadequate government measures.

In order for the cabinet to fall, a vote of no confidence must be passed by a majority of all MPs, i.e. at least 101. The opposition ANO and SPD have 92 votes in full. The coalition camp of ODS, STAN, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09 and Pirates has 108 votes.

Out of the 16 attempts to express no confidence in the government so far, only one was successful in March 2009. During the vote on Mirko Topolánek’s government during the Czech Presidency of the EU, the opposition was joined by four coalition MPs, so it received the necessary 101 out of 197 votes. In the last election period, Babiš’s minority cabinet resisted three votes of no confidence.

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