Czechia’s President Milos Zeman officially appointed Petr Fiala as prime minister to lead a broad coalition of right-wing and centrist parties on Sunday, after his predecessor Andrej Babis lost the national elections in October.

Fiala said his new coalition, expected to form mid-December, hopes to be a government of change. In the short term, the Fiala administration will have to deal with rising coronavirus infections, a ballooning budget deficit and an energy crisis.

President Zeman inaugurated Fiala from inside a sealed cubicle, as he contracted COVID-19 during a recent hospitalisation.

Source: Reuters