Czech lower house to change leadership, the president and one vice-president will be women, ultranationalist welfare chauvinist is out

The candidate for the coalition of coalitions (the Pirates + STAN coalition and the tripartite Spolu coalition) for the post of president of the newly-elected Czech Chamber of Deputies will be the head of the TOP 09 party from the Spolu (Together) coalition, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, according to the chair of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Petr Fiala of the Spolu coalition, who made the announcement at a press conference today after the coalitions’ negotiations to agree on leadership assignments ended. One vice-president of the lower house representing the Pirates will be that party’s first vice-chair, Olga Richterová, according to Ivan Bartoš, the party chair, who announced the news on Twitter. 

The coalition of coalitions has decided that they will offer two vice-presidential seats in the Chamber of Deputies to the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) movement, which the ODS chair said corresponds to their electoral results. The “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD) movement, will not be given a vice-presidential post.

“If we respect the principle of proportional representation in the leadership of the Chamber of Deputies, and if the ANO movement, as the strongest club in the incoming opposition, will have two vice-presidential posts, then it does not work out, numerically, for the SPD to have a leadership role,” said Fiala. The new Chamber of Deputies, according to the coalition of coalitions, should have six vice-presidents, which means that in addition to the two ANO vice-presidents there will be one vice-president each for the Christian Democrats, the ODS, the Pirates and STAN. 

The outgoing lower house had five vice-presidents, one each from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the Czech Social Democratic Party, ODS, Pirates and SPD. According to Fiala, the TOP 09 chair will be a dignified representative of the Chamber of Deputies as its president.

“She has experience, she knows how the Chamber of Deputies functions, and I believe that her entire political career has demonstrated that she will be a cultivated, good representative of all the elected lawmakers sitting in the Chamber of Deputies,” Fiala said. The proposal of the TOP 09 chair as president of the lower house was also supported by the Pirates and STAN. 

“We have understood this and we believe it is exactly Markéta Pekarová Adamová who will also be a symbol of change in the leadership of the Chamber of Deputies,” said Vít Rakušan, the head of STAN (Mayors and Independents). He has been criticizing the outgoing president of the lower house, Radek Vondráček (ANO).