Prague - Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka's new centre-left government will face a parliamentary vote of confidence on February 18 after taking power with a mandate to boost an economy recovering from recession.
Under Czech law, governments must call a confidence vote within 30 days of taking office. Lawmakers approved the date of the vote at the opening of a new lower house session on Tuesday.
President Milos Zeman appointed the new cabinet last Wednesday, ending a seven-month power vacuum that has hampered policymaking in the central European country.
The three-party ruling coalition - made up of Sobotka's Social Democrats, centrist movement ANO and the Christian Democrats - holds 111 of 200 seats in the lower house, ensuring its smooth passage through the confidence vote.
Sobotka's government plans to ease some fiscal restrictions imposed by a former centre-right cabinet and bring the country closer to the euro zone.
It has taken over from a caretaker administration which had governed the country since the centre-right cabinet collapsed last June in a sleaze scandal.
Reuters