Czech coalition government proposes Dienstbier for Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Minister

Representatives of ANO, the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) and the Czech Social Democrats (ČSSD) signed a coalition agreement on 6 January describing the principles of and program for the incoming coalition government’s work. The government should have 17 posts including prime minister and two ministers without portfolio.

ČSSD will have eight seats in the cabinet, ANO six and KDU-ČSL three. ČSSD chair Bohuslav Sobotka will now submit the agreement to Czech President Miloš Zeman, who is to appoint Sobotka prime minister.   

The leaders also published a list of their candidates for ministers in the new government Monday. ČSSD says Czech Senator Jiří Dienstbier should be come Minister for Human Rights and Equal Opportunities; he had also been speculated about as a potential candidate for the European Parliament.  

The 50-page document includes the program that was agreed to by the coalition before Christmas. The incoming government promises, among other thing, to raise the minimum wage and pensions and to restore cuts to state benefits paid to parents for their second (or third, etc.) children.

The program also abolishes most health-care fees. It plans to reduce VAT on baby food, books, diapers and medicine as of 2015.

An improved selection of taxes and the seeking of savings in the state administration are proposed to keep the public finance deficit at or below 3 % of GDP. Another part of the document describes the ratio of the representatives of the various parties in the cabinet and the principles of their work. 

ČSSD should be staffing, for example, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Industry, the Interior Ministry, and the Labor Ministry, while the ANO movement will be in charge of the Defense Ministry, Finance Ministry, Justice Ministry and Transportation Ministry. KDU-ČSL will nominate the Agriculture Minister, the Culture Minister, and the Deputy Prime Minister for Science.

The cabinet must appear before the Chamber of Deputies with a request for a vote of confidence within one month after the government is appointed; the vote could take place sometime in February. The ANO movement, ČSSD and KDU-ČSL now have 111 votes total in the 200-member lower house.