{"id":3791,"date":"2021-10-26T17:40:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T21:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/?p=3791"},"modified":"2021-10-26T18:57:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T22:57:22","slug":"czech-republic-experiences-constitutional-crisis-after-presidents-hospitalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/2021\/10\/26\/czech-republic-experiences-constitutional-crisis-after-presidents-hospitalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Czech Republic Experiences Constitutional Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liam Brucker-Casey<\/strong>
\nInternational News Editor\/Assistant Editor-in-Chief<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Nearly two weeks since national elections in the Czech Republic, Czechs still have minimal clarity regarding who will lead when the country\u2019s parliament meets again in November. The elections, which took place on the 8th and 9th of October saw the Together electoral coalition win enough seats to deny a majority for the ruling ANO Party of current Prime Minister Andrej Babi\u0161. This was expected to result in the standard transition of power from the ANO Party to the Together coalition, but on October 10th Czech President Milo\u0161 Zeman <\/span>was hospitalized<\/span><\/a>. Zeman, as the President of the Czech Republic is constitutionally required to name a new Prime Minister, but his hospitalization is, <\/span>according to his doctors<\/span><\/a>, serious enough that he is unable to perform this constitutional duty. This has put the central European nation in limbo and uncharted constitutional territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Current Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babi\u0161 reacts to election results Prague, Czech Republic on October 9th, 2021 (Photo courtesy of Bernadett Szabo\/Reuters)<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Czech Senate, in light of the President\u2019s incapacitation, <\/span>has announced<\/span><\/a> it will work to transfer Zeman\u2019s powers to current Prime Minister Babi\u0161 who would be expected to then name a new Prime Minister from the Together coalition after which he would step down and return to parliament as a member of the opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n

To add to the confusion caused by Zeman\u2019s hospitalization, the President\u2019s staff has been tight-lipped on his status, and actions during his hospitalization may have been <\/span>criminal in nature<\/span><\/a>. The hospital which has been caring for Zeman has communicated to officials that Zeman has been incapacitated to a degree that would render him unable to perform his Presidential duties. Despite this, on October 14th Zeman\u2019s senior aide escorted the current lower house chair to meet Zeman, without hospital authorization, and the house chair left with what was supposedly the President\u2019s signature to reconvene Parliament in November. This disparity in hospital assessment and Party members\u2019 claims has led police to investigate these circumstances which may have <\/span>involved criminal action<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Petr Fiala leader of the Together Coalition, who is expected to be the next Prime Minister of the Czech Republic speaks to the media in Prague, Czech Republic, on October 9th, 2021 (Photo courtesy of Milan Kammermayer\/Reuters)<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Parliament is taking action to transfer power from the President to Prime Minister Babi\u0161, Czechs are still uncertain on exactly what will happen in the coming weeks. Such drastic action is unprecedented. The individual most likely to head a new government is center-right Together leader Petr Fiala, who will lead his coalition to talk with the centrist Pirates and Mayors Party to form a governing coalition. Fiala\u2019s government could be, <\/span>according to Reuters<\/span><\/a>, more fiscally conservative and less friendly to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact Liam at liam.bruckercasey@student.shu.edu<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly two weeks since national elections in the Czech Republic, Czechs still have minimal clarity regarding who will lead the country when the Country\u2019s Parliament meets again in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4531,"featured_media":3842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,867],"tags":[546,974,975,383,976,374,54],"class_list":["post-3791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-news","tag-546","tag-czech-republic","tag-czechia","tag-election","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-october"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4531"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3791"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3850,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions\/3850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}