The coalition government led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala from the ODS party successfully weathered its third opposition attempt to bring a motion of no confidence to the Chamber of Deputies. This motion, initiated by the senior opposition ANO movement, was expected to fail due to the ruling coalition’s majority in the lower house.

MPs from all five government parties, including ODS, TOP 09, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), Mayors and Independents (STAN), and Pirates, voted against the motion, while MPs from the opposition ANO and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) supported it. As a result, the cabinet will continue to govern with the confidence of the lower house.

The debate preceding the vote in the Chamber of Deputies extended for more than 31 hours, spanning two days.

Prime Minister Fiala expressed his satisfaction with the outcome on Twitter, stating, “I am glad that we could use these two days to present what we have managed to do and with what we are entering the second half of the term.” He added that the lower house had reaffirmed the electorate’s will and MPs’ confidence in the government.

For the government to fall, at least 101 MPs, a majority of all lawmakers in the 200-seat lower house, would have had to support a no-confidence vote.

Although 85 MPs from the opposition ANO and SPD parties supported the motion, 96 coalition MPs opposed it, and the remaining 19 MPs were absent during the vote.

ANO deputy group chairwoman Alena Schillerova expressed disappointment after the vote, claiming that the Czech Republic had lost. ANO leader and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis pledged to continue the fight for the citizens of the Czech Republic, describing the government as “anti-social.”

Despite the outcome, Radim Fiala, head of the SPD deputy group, argued that the government did not have the trust of the citizens.

The no-confidence vote was initiated by ANO MPs due to concerns about STAN leader and Interior Minister Vit Rakusan. They alleged that Rakusan had a mobile phone with the same encryption application used by individuals linked to the Dosimeter corruption case in the Prague Transport Company (DPP). Fiala, however, defended Rakusan and expressed trust in the minister.

This marks the third unsuccessful no-confidence vote in the government, with the previous ones occurring in January 2023 and September 2022. In the history of the independent Czech Republic, 19 no-confidence motions in the government have been held, with only one succeeding, which resulted in the toppling of the cabinet of ODS Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek in 2009.

Article by Prague Forum