Social Democratic Party rejects president’s solution to crisis

The Social Democratic Party has rejected President Zeman’s proffered solutions to the government crisis insisting that the head of state should act in line with the constitution and dismiss Finance Minister Andrej Babis without further delay. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said that the president’s suggestion that both the prime minister and finance minister should leave the cabinet or that there should be early elections merely masked the core of the problem which was the finance minister’s suspect finances and attempts to influence the media against political rivals. We expect the head of state to abide by the constitution and dismiss Andrej Babis, the prime minister said.