The Czech Republic finally has a new government. After the appointment on November 28 of Petr Fiala as Prime Minister, the country awaited the green light from President Milos Zeman to announce the composition of the new center-right government.
The leader of the conservative Civic Democrats party, better known by the acronym ODS, at 57, takes the reins of a country which, like the rest of Europe, has been experiencing a new wave of Covid in recent weeks.
At the head of a large coalition which includes in particular the Czech Pirate Party, this former historian, journalist, university rector as well as Minister of Education, will have to demonstrate qualities of balancing act so that his government remains united.
Budget balance and the Covid crisis
But Petr Fiala has the profile to please. Well educated, polyglot like James Bond to whom he likes to compare himself and of whom he says he is a fan. The new Czech Prime Minister slashes with the personality of Andrej Babis, his predecessor: a populist billionaire who did not hesitate to change his mind to attract new voters.
Petr Fiala will have to get to work quickly. The Czech Republic, like the rest of the European continent, is in the grip of a new pandemic wave. And the economic consequences of this health crisis will not simplify the task for him, who has made a balanced budget the cornerstone of an electoral program which is intended to be ambitious.
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