PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s government was in crisis Tuesday after a junior party in the ruling coalition said it would leave the Cabinet over Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s decision to fire the party leader.
Fiala said he would ask the president to dismiss Regional Development Minister Ivan Bartos by the end of the month. He said he had lost trust in Bartos’s ability to deal with the problems linked to a new digital system for issuing building permits.
In the Czech Republic, the president appoints and dismisses the government ministers at the request of the prime minister.
President Petr Pavel who is currently in the United States said he would not act until he returned home and learned the details.
Tuesday’s development came after a poor showing of Bartos’s Pirates party in regional elections on Saturday. As a result, Bartos resigned as the party’s head.
The main opposition group led by former populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis won the biggest share of votes, a boost ahead of next year’s parliamentary election.
Besides Bartos, the Pirates have two more ministers in the government, including Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, a vocal supporter of Ukraine’s efforts to fight Russia’s invasion. Fiala said he was happy with their work and was asking the Pirates to put forward a new minister to replace Bartos.
But the Pirates said the dismissal was in breech of their coalition agreement and Bartos said they were not ready to nominate a replacement.
He told Czech public television Tuesday he assumed “it’s the end” of his party in the government. Its departure from the coalition still has to be approved by an online referendum of the party members in the coming days.
Fiala’s government will retain a majority in Parliament’s lower house, even without the Pirates.
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