PRAGUE - Before the secret election of the head of the lower house, for which the future coalition of ANO, SPD and Motorists for Ourselves will nominate SPD chair Tomio Okamura, all members of the nascent coalition will sign an amendment to the coalition agreement. In it, they will undertake to comply with everything that follows from the coalition agreement. Part of the document includes the appointment of Okamura to the leadership of the lower house. The coalition agreement itself, which will form the basis for the next government of Andrej Babiš, will be signed on Monday at one o'clock after noon by the chairmen of the parties of the future government, together with the chairmen of the ANO, SPD and Motorists' clubs.
"The MPs are signing an addendum in which they express their agreement with the text of the coalition agreement and undertake to abide by everything that follows from the coalition agreement," ANO First Vice-Chair Karel Havlíček told iDNES.cz. "We have a coalition agreement ready and we will sign it. Of course, it also includes these personal details. We will discuss it in the clubs and, of course, we trust each other," ANO Deputy Speaker Alena Schillerová said before the secret election of the head of the lower house.
The SPD chief's opponent will be Jan Bartošek, a People's Party member who was deputy speaker of the lower house in the last election. "On Monday, the MPs will take an oath on their honour to carry out their mandate to the best of their ability. I appeal to the honour of the deputies of the ANO movement. Before the elections, both Andrej Babiš and Alena Schillerová ruled out a coalition with Okamura's SPD. Now they are not only going into government with him, but they want to make him the third highest constitutional official," Bartošek told iDNES.cz.
In an interview with Právo he said he knows that some ANO MPs do not identify with Okamura. He did not want to say how he knew that, however, or to estimate how many such MPs there are. "The election will be secret," Bartošek stressed. If he himself fails, which is quite likely, Bartošek will not run for deputy speaker of the lower house. Okamura does not want to get ahead of himself. "I appreciate the joint nomination, so we will see how it all turns out. Of course, just as Mrs Pekarová was unacceptable to us, I would not expect the outgoing Fial government coalition with Rakušan and the Pirates to accept us," the SPD leader said.
Austrian refuses to "kiss the ring" over election
According to the agreement between ANO, SPD and the Motorists, the number of deputy speakers of the lower house is to drop to four. ANO is proposing Patrik Nacher and the Motorists are proposing Jiří Barták. Two positions in the House leadership should be filled by the future opposition. The Civic Democrats are nominating Jan Skopeček, while the STAN movement is nominating its chairman, former Interior Minister Vit Rakusan.
"He can't even run if he's a minister. I don't understand at all why they are nominating someone who cannot be in that position," SPD chief Okamura said on Wednesday. "We will resolve this in accordance with the law, just as we did in the last election period when Karel Havlíček was elected deputy speaker of the lower house. That is, he was elected only after he was no longer a minister. We will therefore leave a vacancy," Pavla Pivoňka Vaňková, vice-chair of the STAN club, told iDNES.cz.
Havlíček was elected Deputy Speaker of the House in February 2022 in a secret ballot for the sixth time, when the five-coalition coalition led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala was already in power. Before that, ANO tried in vain to make Havlíček a rival of Marketa Pekarova Adamová in the election of the head of the Chamber of Deputies. However, this was not possible due to the incompatibility of the positions. Havlíček was still in government at the time. "I will only run when I am no longer a minister. And if I'm not deputy speaker... the world won't fall apart either. If I have to kiss the ring for that, thanks, I'm not interested," the Austrian wrote on the X network.
One position of Deputy Speaker of the House will remain vacant after the constituent assembly of the lower chamber. ANO deputies are to lead five committees, the SPD three, including the organising committee, and the Motorists two. The leadership of the other eight committees should go to ODS, STAN, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 legislators.
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