Czech Republic: Rusnok New Head of Government

Czech Republic: Rusnok New Head of Government / Picture: © Vindobona.org

The 52-year-old economic expert and former Finance Minister was sworn in today. Left-wing oriented Rusnok is supposed to lead the country out of the political crisis, Prime Minister Petr Necas has driven it into. Necas, head of the center-left government, stepped back on June 17 after a corruption and spying scandal became public.

Rusnok now has to form his cabinet which needs to be approved by the President. Rusnok announced that this will be carried out within the next two weeks. Afterwards, the government is confronted with a vote of confidence in parliament. The outcome is unclear since several parties favor early elections. They accuse Zeman of bypassing the parliament by appointing a government with representatives of his political camp.

The appointment of Rusnok does not come as a full surprise. Former Finance and Economy Minister under Zeman (2001 – 2002) and Spidla (2002 – 2003) was regarded the candidated with the best chances. President Zeman has now carried out what he had expressed more or less clearly over the last days: the appointment of a government of experts without the mandate of the parliament.

Since the coming government of experts will probably not find any support in parliament it is likely that the parliament will be dissolved to bring about early elections.