President Zeman appoints Rusnok as caretaker prime minister

President Miloš Zeman has appointed economist Jiří Rusnok to succeed Petr Nečas as prime minister of the Czech Republic. Mr. Rusnok will head a caretaker cabinet. Aged 52, he was finance minister under then PM Zeman in the early 2000s before serving as minister of industry and trade.

Mr. Rusnok’s government may find it difficult to win a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. The outgoing centre-right coalition had wanted to continue under another leader, while the left-wing parties have said that an interim cabinet is acceptable as long as early elections are held as soon as possible. The technocrat government is expected to be in power for several months. The next regular elections are set to take place in May 2014.

Author: Ian Willoughby