The Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) called on the Minister of Health Roman Prymula (for ANO) to resign, but he refused a few hours later. Babiš is therefore determined to recall him and is already looking for a deputy who could take over the leadership of the ministry from next week. After the meeting with the President, the Prime Minister presented Prymul’s end as a done deal, stating that the Prime Minister has the constitutional right to dismiss ministers.
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But there is one catch. Not so long ago, the president deviated habits in this direction. If President Miloš Zeman now sided with Roman Prymula, the arrival of the new head of the ministry may be delayed. Like last spring, when President Zeman did not accept the resignation of the then Minister of Culture Antonín Staňek (ČSSD) and refused to appoint his partner Michal Šmard.
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The whole situation, which escalated even into a government crisis, lasted over a quarter of a year. In the current situation, state officials cannot afford such a thing. The struggle between Miloš Zeman and Andrej Babiš is already foretold by some experienced politicians, such as the new senator Miroslava Němcová, according to whom the non-resignation of Prymula means a war between the president and the prime minister.
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Prymula will not resign. It means a war between Zeman and Babiš. The president and prime minister are playing a game of power and people are losing lives, hopes, livelihoods!
– Miroslava Nemcova (@Nemcova_Mirka) October 23, 2020
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Recall how a similar intransigence of politicians in mid-2019 turned into a government crisis.
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In April 2019, Antonín Staňek was broken by the dismissal of the directors of the National Gallery in Prague, Jiří Fajt, and the Olomouc Museum of Art, Michal Soukup. A petition was filed against the appeal, and Antonín Staněk resigned in mid-May at the request of the chairman of the Social Democracy, Jan Hamáček. However, the president did not accept this. It took him two months to receive it. Then the fight for Stanek’s successor began.
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“By the end of May, I will nominate an experienced manager and negotiator, Michal Šmard, as the new Minister of Culture,” Hamáček said at the time. However, the prime minister did not like the name on the first day, who was annoyed that Šmarda belonged to the faction in the CSSD that was against the entry of social democracy into the government with the YES movement.
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At the end of May, Miloš Zeman intervened for the first time, advising all participants to wait for the results of the criminal report, which Staněk filed on suspicion of misuse of funds in the ministry. He did not meet Šmarda until a month later. On June 27, Jan Hamáček said for the first time that the Czech Republic had reached the edge of the constitutional crisis. “I strongly doubt that Šmarda will ever be a minister,” the president said two days later.
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The prime minister, deputy prime minister and president remained in a stalemate. Even the meeting of all three at the beginning of July did not bring anything, Hamáček expressed doubts about the continued stay of the CSSD in the government, where, according to him, it cannot decide on its own representative in it.
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It was not until the end of July that the President confirmed that Staňka would recall on 31 July, the Social Democrats still insisted on Michal Šmard, and Deputy René Schreier temporarily took over the head of the ministry. From 1 August, the prime minister could entrust another member of the government with the management of the ministry, but the CSSD opposed it, according to which it would be a violation of the coalition government agreement.
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In mid-August, Zeman asked Hamáček for a new candidate. “The President of the Republic, Miloš Zeman, stated that Mr. Michal Šmarda had never dealt with the issue of Czech culture. For this reason, he is not professionally competent to perform the function of the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, “said Jiří Ovčáček, a spokesman for the president. He was also supported by Babiš, who stated that “he will not be in government with this gentleman”.
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Michal Šmarda called the progress of the YES and Castle movement a bullying. Hamáček also insisted on compliance with the constitution and the coalition agreement. Michal Šmarda resigned from his candidacy on 19 August. A day later, Andrej Babiš announced at a press conference after talks with the president that there was no crisis. “I would like us to finally be able to talk about positive things in the media. For example, that it is raining. We are fighting the drought. “
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The next day, August 21, Hamáček nominates Lubomír Zaorálek as Minister of Culture. Zeman agrees.
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