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The new government led by Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok has begun to take shape. Martin Pecina will take the helm at the Ministry of the Interior, which he headed from May 2009 until March the following year in a previous caretaker government. Diplomat Jan Kohout, who served as foreign minister in the same cabinet, appears set to take the same post again. Marie Benešová, a former senior state prosecutor, is in the frame to take the justice portfolio. Mr Rusnok said on Tuesday that his cabinet would be completed within two weeks. After its naming, it will have 30 days to seek a parliamentary vote of confidence.

Members of the centre-right coalition have again confirmed they will not back the Rusnok government in a confidence vote as long as they hold a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. Speaking to the daily Právo, outgoing Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek derided the new government as a “cabinet of friends of Miloš Zeman” and not a government of “experts”. He warned it would neither pass in the lower house nor see a state budget for next year approved, raising the risk of a provisional budget.

The coalition’s candidate for prime minister, Miroslava Němcová, meanwhile, slammed President Zeman’s decision to ignore the balance of power in the Chamber of Deputies as irresponsible; she stressed that the new cabinet would not get any support from her party . The centre-right coalition, which collapsed following the resignation of former prime minister Nečas, will not push for early elections as long as they have a majority.

The Social Democratic Party has said it may instigate a vote on the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies in July, even if the party beforehand lacks the 120 votes needed. The head of the party’s deputies club Jeroným Tejc said the Social Democrats would still try and gain support from the centre-right parties the Civic Democrats and TOP 09. MP Tejc made clear his party wanted to open the way to early elections. So far, the Social Democrats can count on the vote of 54 of its own MPs and 26 MPs from the Communist Party. Public Affairs, who have also called for early elections, have 11, bringing the total to 91. As it stands, it is unclear which – if any – parties in the Chamber of Deputies will vote in favour of Jiří Rusnok’s cabinet: the opposition parties all prefer early elections and the members of the centre-right coalition a continuation of the previous government under new prime minister Miroslava Němcová.

The Senate on Wednesday agreed on 36 nominees for state honours, including former dissident Pavel Wonka, psychologist Slavomil Hubálek (in memoriam) or retired actor Lubomír Lipsky, who is 90. Last year the senate named 35 nominees; then-president Václav Klaus honoured two of them. State honours are awarded every October 28, the anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s independence.