Final Word from Wednesday, May 9, 2018

One year ago this month, Miloš Zeman was so eager for Bohuslav Sobotka to resign as Czech PM that he accepted Sobotka's resignation although it was never officially proffered. Four years earlier, in June 2013, Zeman was so eager for Petr Nečas to resign that he didn't even ask who the replacement should be. When a PM tenders a resignation after losing a confidence vote or no-confidence vote, or after a new Parliament convenes, the president is explicitly required by the Constitution under Art. 73 to accept it. When the PM resigns in other cases, there is no such explicit requirement. In other words, if Zeman had decided to reject Nečas's resignation in June 2013, he could have found grounds for doing so. Likewise, if a new coalition of ANO+ČSSD is created and approved by Parliament based on a vow that the PM will resign if convicted of a crime or if ČSSD's ministers resign, the president has room for refusing to accept the resignation. ČSSD's negotiators can thump their chests and claim they have the guarantees from Babiš they wanted, but it once again comes down to how Zeman sees things. [Czech Republic parliamentary elections Andrej]