Czech Foreign Minister may resign: Details
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský (Photo: Getty Images)
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský will resign early next week. This will occur in the wake of the failure of his party, the "Pirates," in local elections, according to ct24.
It is worth noting that after extremely poor results in last weekend's regional elections, the "Pirates" began voting on whether to leave the governing coalition.
This coincided with the resignation of the "Pirates" leader Ivan Bartoš and his dismissal from the position of Czech Deputy Prime Minister for Digitalization.
Formally, the internal party vote on whether to leave the coalition will last until the end of Monday, September 30. Still, the current leadership of the "Pirates" says the decision has already been made.
Amid this, Czech Foreign Minister Lipavský, appointed to his position under the "Pirates" quota, decided to interrupt his trip to the United States. He will return to Czechia on Sunday and meet with Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Monday to submit his resignation.
At the same time, Lipavský, disagreeing with the "Pirates" decision to leave the coalition, announced his intentions to leave the party and not join any other political faction.
Amid this situation, speculation has arisen in the media that he may remain in the government as an independent. Still, it is not officially known whether Lipavský will retain his position under such a scenario.
It is worth recalling that the so-called "Coalition of Five" currently governs in Czechia, consisting of the center-right "Together" bloc (Civic Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party, and TOP 09) and the center-left alliance "Pirates and Mayors" (Czech Pirate Party and "Mayors and Independents" party).
Czech President Petr Pavel noted that the results of the regional elections signal to the government which regions to focus more attention on ahead of the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, which will be held next year.
