Czech president appoints coalition leader Fiala as new PM

Czech President Milos Zeman appointed the leader of the incoming coalition government Petr Fiala as prime minister on Sunday, in a ceremony he performed from a plexiglass cubicle after testing positive for COVID-19.

Fiala will face the urgent task of grappling with one of the world’s highest COVID-19 infection rate including a case of the new Omicron variant.

“I am convinced we will soon have a strong and stable government,” Fiala said.

Zeman said, he aimed to wrap up meetings with possible ministers by December 13, and we can then prepare the appointment of the government.

Fiala teamed his Civic Democratic Party up with two smaller parties to form the Together alliance which came first in last month’s general election.

The grouping, which includes the centrist Christian Democrats and the centre-right TOP 09 parties, narrowly beat the ANO movement of outgoing populist billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis.

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Kamila/Al-Jazeera