Czech Republic: Government Formation in Czechia and the Prospect of a Vote of Confidence

The process of forming a new government following ANO’s electoral victory has been marked by both considerable momentum and clear political tensions. According to statements by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Tomio Okamura (SPD), the cabinet formed by ANO, SPD, and the Motorists is expected to be appointed a few days after Andrej Babiš is sworn in as prime minister, with the vote of confidence scheduled for 13 January 2026. At the same time, the coalition is preparing to hold the first cabinet meetings even before the end of the current year. However, the announced pace of action may be affected by tensions arising from uncertainty over the cabinet’s final composition and by the controversy surrounding Filip Turek’s candidacy for the post of minister of the environment.

Assumption of power. According to information provided by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Tomio Okamura, the appointment of the ANO–SPD–Motorists coalition government is to take place a few days after Andrej Babiš’s appointment as prime minister. The head of government of the Czech Republic was formally appointed on 9 December 2025, following his earlier presentation of a solution to the conflict-of-interest issue (“IEŚ Commentaries”, No. 1484). The first meetings of the new cabinet have been scheduled before the end of December, while—according to ANO representatives—the first regular cabinet meeting is to be held on the day following the government’s formal appointment. One of the agenda items is expected to be a draft amendment to the Building Act.

Controversy over the environment ministry. One of the key contentious issues in the process of forming the new government remains the candidacy of Filip Turek (Motorists) for the post of minister of the environment. A decision on his nomination has not yet been formally taken by the coalition council and depends on a planned meeting between the ministerial candidate and President Petr Pavel. The source of the controversy lies in numerous earlier statements made by Filip Turek on social media—clearly racist and homophobic in nature—which constitute a key reference point in assessing his candidacy. The prospect of his participation in the new government has met with strong opposition from the parliamentary opposition and has triggered demonstrations in many cities across the Czech Republic. As a result, the issue has ceased to be merely personal and has become part of a broader debate on the ethical standards of the future cabinet.

The president’s reservations. In addition to the strong criticism voiced by parts of the public, President Petr Pavel has also clearly expressed his doubts regarding a potential nomination of Filip Turek as minister. In his view, the standards of a democratic state cannot be limited solely to the criterion of having no criminal record, but must also take into account the ethical and moral dimensions of holding public office. In this context, Pavel has pointed to the possibility of initiating a competence dispute procedure that could be resolved by the Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud). At the same time, signals from the president’s office indicate clearly that the process of government formation cannot be reduced to a purely formal role, but will be subject to substantive scrutiny by the President’s Office.

Additional uncertainty surrounding the staffing of the environment ministry persists due to Filip Turek’s absence from the consultations with President Petr Pavel scheduled for 8 December. His absence, attributed to declared health problems, meant that the candidate has not yet presented the president with explanations regarding the controversies surrounding him. As a result, the decision on a possible nomination has been postponed, prolonging a state of institutional uncertainty in the process of finalizing the composition of the new government, which—according to Tomio Okamura’s earlier statements—was to be appointed by 13 December. Moreover, in line with previous declarations, the vote of confidence in Andrej Babiš’s coalition government is scheduled for 13 January 2026. Given the expected parliamentary majority of ANO, SPD, and the Motorists, the outcome of the vote is largely determined by parliamentary arithmetic and should not be at risk.

Conclusions. The process of forming a new government in the Czech Republic reveals a structural tension between the ANO–SPD–Motorists coalition’s ability to exercise effective control over a parliamentary majority and the limits of its agency at the stage of filling key ministerial posts. The controversial candidacy of Filip Turek for the post of minister of the environment demonstrates that the cabinet-formation phase is not determined solely by parliamentary arithmetic, which in this case does not resolve the issue of governmental legitimacy. President Petr Pavel’s stance—consistently invoking ethical criteria in the nomination process that go beyond the mere requirement of a clean criminal record—shifts the interpretive focus from a formal-legal understanding of appointments to a normative and symbolic dimension. In this perspective, the composition of the cabinet becomes an instrument for institutionally defining expected standards of public responsibility. The vote of confidence scheduled for 13 January 2026, given the coalition’s stable majority, will not undermine the government’s strength in purely numerical terms; however, it will not settle the issue of its normative legitimacy. Until an institutional resolution is reached regarding Turek’s candidacy, tension will persist between the cabinet’s formal grounding in parliamentary arithmetic and the unresolved dispute over the ethical standards of part of the future governing elite.