New rules making it more difficult to vote out of office a sitting government through a vote of no confidence will be put before the Czech Cabinet on Wednesday (January 25).
The new rules call for a no-confidence proposal to be accompanied by the name of the person who will be the next prime minister and form the next government if the vote wins majority support from those lawmakers in the lower house of Parliament present at the time.
The so-called constructive vote of no confidence follows the controversial collapse of the center-right coalition of former prime minister Civic Democrat (ODS) Mirek Topolánek in the middle of its EU presidency in March 2009, after four previous failed attempts by the opposition to overthrow it had failed.
The no-confidence vote was followed by confusion because the main left-wing opposition, the Social Democrats (ČSSD), were themselves in no shape to put together a government. A caretaker government headed by the chief of the country’s statistical office, Jan Fischer, was eventually cobbled together with the support of the two main parties. It lasted for a year after the early intention of holding elections in October 2009 were scrapped because of fears they would be challenged as illegal. ‘Its frequent use threatens political instability in the country and deepening political crisis, which understandably has negative economic effects.’
The new rules to be discussed on Wednesday would also propose setting a minimum six-month delay between the staging of one no-confidence vote and a follow-up vote of support for the government if proposed by the usual minimum 50 lower house lawmakers. An earlier vote would only be possible only if the proposal were backed by at least 80 members of parliament.
The fragile center-right coalition of Prime Minister Petr Nečas (ODS) said the proposed changes should “above all act as insurance” against the possible abuse of the constitutional possibility. “Its frequent use threatens political instability in the country and deepening political crisis, which understandably has negative economic effects,” he said.
Such constitutional changes demand a three-fifths majority of all members of the lower house of Parliament (Chamber of Deputies) and three-fifths support of all members of the upper house (the Senate), in order to become law. The current center-right coalition (ODS-VV-TOP 09) fall short of two-thirds of seats in the lower house with the ČSSD having a thin majority in the upper house, meaning that opposition support for the change would have to be won.
The change in the law would also weaken the power of the Czech head of state, currently President
Václav Klaus, since he would have to ask the person outlined in the no-confidence vote to form a government and would have no room to negotiate himself or put forward his own solution.
