The Pirates will leave the Czech government and ruling coalition on Tuesday after a meeting of their MPs, when Pirate ministers Jan Lipavsky and Michal Salomoun will resign, according to outgoing Pirate leader, Deputy PM and Regional Development Minister Ivan Bartos, speaking to Czech Television yesterday.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) has dismissed Bartos from the government as of Monday, when the Pirates’ internal vote on leaving the cabinet is also to end.
Asked on the TV discussion show ‘Questions of Vaclav Moravec’ whether the Pirates would leave the coalition cabinet, Bartos replied: “That’s right.”
“When you throw the party chairman out of the government over the phone, the party probably can’t react any other way,” he said.
He added that the results of the internal party vote would be “accepted” by the Pirate parliamentary group on Tuesday, and then the remaining Pirate ministers, Minister for Legislation Salomoun and Foreign Minister Lipavsky, would resign “at a date that would probably be agreed upon with the PM.” Bartos plans to meet the other coalition partners afterwards, he noted.
Bartos said he had no idea whether Lipavsky would be willing to continue in the government as a non-partisan minister, given that he had announced his resignation from the Pirates at the same time as his resignation.
Lipavsky told Czech TV on Friday that he did not agree with the party’s departure from the coalition. He previously said that if the Pirate Party decided to do so, he would resign, but at the same time, leave the Pirates.
Lipavsky will discuss his future in the cabinet with Fiala on Monday. There has been speculation in the media that he might stay in the government as a non-party member for another ruling party.
“There is certainly a good continuity at the Foreign Ministry. We will think about whether this is a viable path for Jan Lipavsky, for me and for the parties of the governing coalition,” Fiala said. He again described Lipavsky as a good minister.
Opposition ANO movement deputy chairwoman Alena Schillerova said Lipavsky was considered indispensable because he was fulfilling the tasks of Fiala’s government.
Also speaking on ‘Questions of Vaclav Moravec’, ODS deputy leader and Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said that after the Pirates left the government, it would be necessary to change the coalition agreement to apply only to the remaining four parties in the coalition.
According to Stanjura, the government policy statement would not be changed, and therefore there is no reason for the four-party coalition government to ask for the confidence of the lower house of the Czech parliament. Because of this, the opposition is considering calling a vote of no confidence in the cabinet.
Stanjura said he did not consider it necessary for the coalition to replace Bartos in his position of deputy prime minister for digitalisation, and the post of Minister for Legislation could also be abolished. Stanjura added that the coalition would discuss the issue further.
Bartos said it would be a mistake if his post were abolished, noting the inter-ministerial coordination of digitisation, management of the Government Council for the Information Society and continuation of the central digitisation team at the Government Office. “These are not some assistants to Ivan Bartos,” the outgoing deputy PM said.
In another debate programme yesterday on CNN Prima News, Fiala said he wants the form of the ruling coalition to be completely clear by Wednesday at the latest, and the cabinet to be complete, functional and operational within 14 days.
He also did not rule out abolishing the post of Minister for Legislation when the Pirates left the government, and said the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Regional Development could be divided between the Mayors and Independents (STAN) and ODS.
Fiala also said that he was not planning a major government reshuffle. “I want it to be completely clear by Wednesday at the latest. On Wednesday, I will tell the public how it will be. I would like us to have a complete, functional and efficient government within 14 days,” he said.
Amid the government crisis, the Pirates’ members began voting on Friday on whether the party should withdraw from the coalition agreement. In a vote that will last until Monday evening, the Pirates have the opportunity to approve their move to the opposition, which the leadership is talking about as a done deal.
According to Fiala, he told the Pirates on Thursday that he could imagine several scenarios.
The first is that they will not leave the government. The second is that the coalition agreement will be modified and even if the Pirate Party leaves, the programme points will be implemented and the Pirates will support the government in some way. The third, which Fiala said the Pirates were now leaning towards, was that they would be a radical opposition and deny what they had been doing in government for three years.
