President Zeman voices preference for ANO minority government

President Milos Zeman has indicated that he will give the ANO party which won the last general elections by a broad margin a second chance to form a government. In a debate on TV Nova on Sunday the president said he would prefer a minority cabinet made up of ANO party members supported by the Social Democrats and Communists or the Social Democrats and the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party. Mr. Zeman said he would leave it up the party to decide whether Andrej Babis should head the next cabinet, after he was stripped of his immunity and released for criminal prosecution. Babis, who had been promised a second chance to form a cabinet, has indicated that he would bow to the will of the ANO party and might leave the top post to a party colleague if such a step would secure a viable government.