Civic Democrat rebels expelled

The Civic Democratic Party’s leadership on Friday voted to expel MPs Jan Florián and Tomáš Ulehla as well as lobbyist Tomáš Hrdlička from party ranks. The two MPs were expelled for breaking party ranks during Wednesday’s vote of confidence in the Rusnok caretaker government; Hrdlička for having talked them into a last-minute change of stance. The move had no effect on the negative outcome of the confidence vote for the Rusnok administration but clearly demonstrated that the centre-right parties did not have a 101-vote majority in the lower chamber, dashing their hopes of establishing a new government.