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Police have requested the lower house of Parliament to strip ANO leader Andrej Babiš and ANO deputy chair Jaroslav Faltýnek of their parliamentary immunity opening the way for criminal prosecution. The two politicians were earlier charged with EU subsidy fraud but their prosecution was halted when their regained their immunity in October’s general elections.

The police request comes less than 24 hours after the newly elected chamber of deputies assembled for its constituting session. It will now be up to the Mandate and Immunity Committee to consider the request and make a recommendation to the assembly which will take a final vote on the matter.

This will inevitably complicate talks on forming a new government. As the winner of the elections Babiš was to have been named prime minister and has been working to put together a minority government.

The newly elected lower house of the Czech Parliament began holding its constituent session on Monday afternoon, 30 days after general elections in which the winning ANO party took just under 30 percent of the vote. Speaking ahead of the meeting, ANO chief Andrej Babiš said his party had been left with no alternative but to form a minority government after being “rejected” by the other groupings in the Chamber of Deputies.

Mr. Babiš said he would present his government’s policy statement to the other parties after he had outlined ANO’s intentions to President Miloš Zeman.

Negotiations to date suggest that Radek Vondráček of ANO will become be elected to the important speaker’s chair. The Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats, TOP 09 and the Mayors and Independents have formed a group called Democratic Bloc and say they will not vote for Mr. Vondráček.

TOP 09’s Miroslav Kalousek said the vote on the speaker’s position would reveal who the real opposition was. Deputy speakers are also due being voted on, as is the composition of various committees.

On Monday it was decided that all of the record nine parties in the lower house would have seats on the 19-member Mandates and Immunity Committee. The session was then adjourned until Wednesday morning.

The Czech Republic’s representative on the European Commission, Věra Jourová, has presented proposals for a 40-percent quota for women on company boards. Under the ANO politician’s plan, firms whose non-executive directors are more than 60 percent male would have to prioritise women when candidates of equal merit were being considered. Ms. Jourová told The Guardian newspaper ahead of Monday’s announcement that women made up 65 percent of university graduates in Europe so it made sense to draw on that talent and investment. Previous EU efforts to introduce such a quota scheme were blocked by a number of states.

It should be overcast with snow in places in the Czech Republic on Tuesday. Daytime highs are expected to reach about 5 degrees Celsius. The following days are likely to see rain and higher temperatures.