The president has still not accepted the resignations of the three ministers from the second coalition party, the Christian Democrats (KDU), and one minister from the third coalition party, US-DEU. Note that the PM said he will ask for a vote of confidence in Parliament without specifying the date. Should the Cabinet win the vote of confidence with the support of the Communist Party, there are another three (possibly more) ministers from the leading Social Democrats (CSSD) who will resign from the Cabinet. We believe that the PM will ask for the vote of confidence after the Cabinet decides on the Cesky Telecom privatization. The vote of confidence will likely be linked to a law supported by the Communist Party to secure the Cabinet’s survival in the near term.
Privatization of Cesky Telecom on cabinet agenda on Wednesday The Government reportedly plans to keep one representative on CT’s Supervisory Board after the state’s stake is sold. The transaction should also include a ‘golden share’. The sale of the state’s stake is on the agenda of the Cabinet’s regular meeting tomorrow, April 6. Despite the current political uncertainty we believe that the Cabinet will approve the sale of CT to Telefonica at CZK 502 / share. Source CTK
Separately, the Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU) lowered the maximum interconnection fee on calls terminating on a mobile network to CZK 3.11 / minute from CZK 3.19 / minute (-2.6%). Lower mobile interconnection fees should be marginally positive for operators with lower market share (Oskar) as a higher proportion of their calls terminate at other operators’ networks. The negative impact on Eurotel’s interconnection may be offset by higher traffic. The regulation is affective as of April 1.