The Pirates’ national forum will vote on whether to withdraw from the coalition agreement and thus leave the government, according to a post on the party’s Internet forum yesterday. The voting will take place from Friday, 27 September, until Monday, 30 September, at 8pm.
The call for a vote is a response to yesterday’s decision by Petr Fiala (ODS) to propose the dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister and outgoing Pirate leader Ivan Bartos from the government at the end of September. Fiala blames him for the failures in the digitalisation of the construction procedure.
The Pirates have shortened the deadline for the vote so that the result will be known by the evening on the day when Fiala says Bartos is due to leave the government. The results of all-member online votes on the national forum are usually published a few minutes after voting closes.
On the forum, Vojtech Pikal, a former deputy chair of the Pirates, accepted the argument of Ondrej Rucka, the proposer of the vote, that without shortening the deadlines there is a risk of damage from delays. Rucka argued that the national forum must decide by 30 September at the latest in order for the Pirates to proceed according to the results, either to accommodate Prime Minister Fiala’s request to propose a new candidate for Minister of Regional Development, or to leave the government.
In the discussion on the forum, most Pirate members saw Fiala’s action as a violation of the coalition agreement between Spolu (ODS, Christian Democrats, TOP 09) and the Pirates and the Mayors and Independents (STAN). The agreement states that the Prime Minister is to seek the support of the relevant coalition party when replacing ministers.
Fiala told journalists yesterday that the Pirates were not being thrown out of the government, adding that he and the other Spolu leaders are interested in further cooperation with the party.
Speaking after a meeting of the five-party coalition yesterday evening, Fiala said he was satisfied with the work of the other Pirate ministers, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky and Legislation Minister Michal Salomoun.
According to Fiala, Bartos had shown at their meeting that morning that he was unable to acknowledge the extent of the problems regarding the digitalisation of construction management.
Bartos himself, speaking in an interview with Czech Television yesterday evening, said he anticipated the Pirates’ departure from the government following his dismissal.
On Wednesday, Bartos will hold talks with Vit Rakusan, head of the Mayors and Independents (STAN), with whom the Pirates formed an electoral alliance in the 2021 parliamentary elections, and subsequently a coalition cabinet with Spolu.
He described as misleading the statements by Fiala and other Spolu leaders that they did not seek to remove the Pirates from the government, but just wanted to replace him as the minister responsible for digitalisation. Fiala and Bartos met yesterday morning without any mention of Bartos’s dismissal; the prime minister told him over the phone in the afternoon that he would be dismissed from the cabinet.
“When someone sacks the chairman of a coalition party in such a way, the departure of the entire party from the government is a logical step,” said Bartos.
The Pirates have called the prime minister’s decision a snub, a violation of the coalition agreement and a sacking from the government, following which they do not want to continue in the cabinet. They have strongly criticised the Spolu coalition, and ODS in particular, who they say acted under pressure from oligarchs and party godfathers.
The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that a team headed by Transport Minister Martin Kupka (ODS) will be in charge of the digitalisation process.
President Petr Pavel will meet Bartos and the other leaders of the coalition parties on Monday, before discussing the situation with Fiala in the evening.
Pavel told reporters in New York that he could not take a position on the proposal to dismiss Bartos until he knows all the background. So far, he has spoken only by phone with Fiala.
The president said it was important that any change in the government did not affect the stability of the situation in the Czech Republic. It is not desirable for the entire cabinet to be shaken up, or to have heated debates that reflect emotions more than rational arguments, he said.
Pavel also said that unless changes in the government would actually bring progress in the digitalisation of construction management, they would not make much sense.
He expressed particular concern over the Foreign Ministry, which is also headed by a Pirate, Jan Lipavsky, who is currently in the United States with the president.
“The Foreign Ministry is not exactly a ministry whose head could be changed at any moment,” said Pavel. “There is a need for some continuity. Making such a decision a year before the elections would certainly not be easy.”
