“A general election is likely next month after the Chamber of Deputies voted Aug. 20 to dissolve Parliament, raising the issue of how much influence President Miloš Zeman will wield over the next government.
Lawmakers voted 140 to seven in favor of holding new polls, with the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), Public Affairs (VV), Communists (KSČM) and TOP 09, along with a number of deputies without a parliamentary party group affiliation, lining up in favor of dissolving Parliament. At least 120 deputies had to agree to dissolve parliament for the vote to succeed.
With the right-leaning Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which boycotted the vote, languishing in the polls, left-wing lawmakers are likely to be able to form a government after the election, expected on Oct. 25-26.
The Social Democrats are predicted to be the largest party in the lower chamber once the results are in, so any new prime minister will likely be drawn from their ranks.
A key question, according to political analyst Jiří Pehe, the director of New York University Prague and a former adviser to the late former President Václav Havel, is whether Zeman invites the party chairman, Bohuslav Sobotka, to be the head of government.
The selection of Sobotka could reduce Zeman’s influence over the government, since the 41-year-old party chairman is not seen as an ally of the president, who was affiliated with the Social Democrats until 2007…
The influence wielded by Zeman, who took office in March as the Czech Republic’s first directly elected president, has been a key talking point in relation to the government of Jiří Rusnok, whose Cabinet’s recent lost of a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies prompted the dissolution vote.
Zeman’s decision to appoint Rusnok after the government of Petr Nečas fell over a spying and corruption scandal was highly controversial, since Rusnok is a Zeman ally who is not a member of parliament nor affiliated with one of the main parties.
The move, which also saw a string of Zeman allies appointed to the Cabinet, was seen as an attempt by the president to usurp Parliament’s power, even though the Rusnok administration was set to remain in power only for a short period, with elections having to take place next year anyway.
Rusnok resigned as prime minister after his administration lost the Aug. 7 vote of confidence, but the former banker has stayed on in a caretaker role….
Sobotka indicated that, if in power, his party would scale back austerity measures and increase government spending, something the Nečas administration had been predicted to do in any case to boost the economy ahead of what would have been a 2014 election. The Social Democrats, who last held power in 2006, would be likely to increase taxes.
The country has just recorded its first quarter of growth, from April to June, after a record six successive quarters of contraction.”

 Full Article – Daniel Bardsley – The Prague Post