Appointing a government under the shadow of an institutional controversy over the role of the president
Abstract
On 29 January at Prague Castle, Bohuslav Sobotka’s government was appointed by President Miloš Zeman. Bohuslav Sobotka, chairman of the ČSSD (Czech Social Democratic Party), is the eleventh prime minister of the independent Czech Republic and heads its thirteenth government, which replaced the “presidential” government of Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok, who was appointed in July 2013.
Already at the beginning of his term as prime minister, the Social Democrats’ chairman holds the Czech record for time spent waiting for his appointment – 95 days. This was two days longer than Mirek Topolánek’s 93 days between the date of elections and the appointment of a government.
Although this is the longest period between elections and the appointment of a government in the Czech Republic’s history, the processes of forming governments in the neighbouring countries of Austria and Germany, where elections were also held in 2013, were similarly lengthy.