Government to submit budget once new lower house speaker is elected

The government will hand next year’s draft state budget to the Chamber of Deputies once a new speaker is elected, Agriculture Minister and Christian Democrat leader Marek Výborný said on Nova TV. The outgoing cabinet of Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democrats, ODS) had argued that resubmitting the proposal was unnecessary. Výborný added that if the incoming coalition fails to approve the main parameters in the first reading, “there is no point in submitting it.” The previous government’s proposal, now void, envisaged a deficit of 286 billion crowns.