The Lower House of Parliament failed to elect its speaker today in a secret voting. There was a single candidate, Miroslava Nemcova (ODS). Based on the number submitted votes, as indicated CSSD abstained from the voting while 27 votes were against – presumably 26 votes from the Communist party and 1 vote from the centre-right coalition, which sends a bad signal of the coalition’s stability The Lower House of Parliament must organize new elections of the speaker with the next 10 days.
The Lower House leadership must be elected in order the new Government to ask for a confidence. In the meantime, the president should ask the current PM, Jiri Paroubek, who will resign on Monday, July 3, to remain in power. In case the Lower House fails to appoint its leadership within the three months, the President may dissolve it, which triggers early elections. CSSD is asking for the post of the speaker while demands one of the deputies to be filled by the Communists. CSSD demands that the talks on posts in the Lower House are held between the centre-right coalition, CSSD and the Communists. The centre-right declines to negotiate with the Communist while it would support CSSD’s candidate for the speaker’s post in exchange for CSSD’s support of its coalition program.