A new Czech coalition government will be announced next week in what will be the latest administration in Europe that is skeptical of Brussels’ migration pact, Green Deal, and ongoing funding of the war in Ukraine.
ANO leader Andrej Babiš announced on Wednesday that his movement, along with the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and Motorists parties, has finalized a coalition agreement that will be signed on Monday, Nov. 3, coinciding with the inaugural session of the new Chamber of Deputies.
“We have an agreed coalition agreement. We agreed to sign it on Monday, the day the new Chamber of Deputies meets for the first time,” Babiš said in his regular morning video.
Babiš added that discussions will continue on the program statement of the incoming government and on appointments to parliamentary committees and leadership roles. According to Prague Castle, cited by Echo24, he is expected to present the coalition agreement and its program priorities to President Petr Pavel later this week.
He also said the ANO movement would propose new rules of procedure for the Chamber of Deputies to make parliamentary work more efficient. “Today, we will discuss the new rules of procedure of the Chamber of Deputies, our proposal, which the current government has been calling for, in particular, to be changed so that the Chamber of Deputies is effective,” Babiš said.
The pledge comes after years of obstruction tactics by ANO and SPD in opposition, which repeatedly delayed proceedings in the lower house. President Pavel had previously urged lawmakers to reflect on whether parliamentary debate rules should be reformed to prevent gridlock.
The new Chamber is expected to elect its leadership on Nov. 5, for which SPD chairman Tomio Okamura is considered a strong contender for Speaker.
The incoming government is poised to adopt a more nationalist and eurosceptic stance, potentially aligning Czechia with Viktor Orbán’s Hungary and Robert Fico’s Slovakia. The three coalition parties have pledged to reject the European Union’s migration pact and the ETS2 emissions trading scheme for transport and buildings.
“The European Union will not govern us. We will respect certain rules that apply there, but we are accountable to our voters,” said ANO First Deputy Chairman Karel Havlíček earlier this month, adding that the pact could be rejected “at the first meeting” of the new cabinet.
Babiš reiterated the stance, saying, “In our first government, we will reject the migration pact and we will reject ETS2.”
SPD leader Tomio Okamura confirmed that the coalition had reached a “compromise” on tightening residency permit rules, stating, “We have already agreed that we will reject the migration pact at the first meeting of the new potential government and that we will reject ETS2 emission permits because it only brings about higher prices.”
It means a possible rejuvenation of the Visegrád Four, or perhaps Visegrád Three-And-A-Half, with Polish President Karol Nawrocki sympathetic to the positions of Budapest, Bratislava, and Prague, but who faces political opposition in his own country with a Donald Tusk-led left-wing government.
