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Petr Fiala
Photo: Petr David Josek / AP
Shortly before Christmas, the Czech Republic is fighting the fourth corona wave.
In the middle of this time the new government was appointed.
President Miloš Zeman swore in the cabinet ministers under Prime Minister Petr Fiala at Lany Castle near Prague.
The coalition of five parties has had a clear majority of 108 of the 200 seats in the House of Representatives since the election in early October.
Fiala, 57, succeeds populist billionaire Andrej Babis, who came under pressure over financial revelations.
The former politics professor Fiala is chairman of the conservative party ODS, which together with two other parties forms the alliance Spolu.
President Zeman was hospitalized with liver disease the day after the general election.
The appointment of Fiala as head of government was therefore delayed and was only carried out on November 28th.
High contagion rates only decrease slowly
The new government is facing a further tense corona situation.
Shortly before Christmas, the high number of corona infections in the Czech Republic is only slowly falling.
The seven-day incidence is 704 per 100,000 population.
The former government had decided that all people aged 60 and over should be vaccinated against Covid-19 from March 2022.
The new health minister Vlastimil Valek has already announced that it will reverse this.
In addition to Fiala's Citizens' Democrats (ODS), the new government also includes Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), Mayor's Party (STAN), Pirate Party and the bourgeois group TOP09.
For the first time since 2010 there is a European Minister, Mikulas Bek. The Czech Republic will take over the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2022.
asc / dpa / AFP