Governing coalition withstands first no-confidence vote

As expected, the coalition government led by Andrej Babiš (ANO) has withstood the opposition’s first attempt to pass a vote of no confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. The no-confidence vote was triggered by the escalation of a conflict between the Motorists’ Party, who are part of the governing coalition, and President Petr Pavel, who refused to appoint Filip Turek (the Motorists’ honorary president) as environment minister. The vote took place 20 days after the government had won a vote of confidence.

The motion to bring down the government was supported by 84 MPs from the opposition parties -  ODS, STAN, the Pirates, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09. In the 200-member Chamber of Deputies, at least 101 votes are required for a government to fall.

The debate preceding the vote took two days and a total of 22.5 hours.