President Miloš Zeman has announced he will appoint Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka as prime minister on 17 January. Zeman listed a number of objections to the proposed new cabinet, but suggested the new government could be appointed by the end of January.
Mr Sobotka will become the 11th prime minister since the Czech Republic became independent in 1993, succeeding the technocrat leader Jiří Rusnok. The Social Democrat leader had, said Mr Zeman, fulfilled the sole criteria laid before him – presenting him with signed proof that his new coalition government will command a convincing majority in parliament.
For a few days, maybe weeks (maybe longer) after Mr Sobotka’s appointment, the country will find itself in the curious constitutional no-man’s land of simultaneously having two prime ministers – Bohuslav Sobotka, the prime minister designate without an appointed cabinet, and Jiří Rusnok, the interim prime minister who does have a cabinet, albeit one that’s governing in an acting capacity since resigning in August.
The president hinted he was willing to reject Mr Sobotka’s cabinet proposals if consensus couldn’t be found. Even if most constitutional experts agree, his power of veto is in fact limited, and would almost certainly be challenged in the Constitutional Court.
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