Government of Václav Klaus II

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Prime Minister Václav Klaus

The Klaus II cabinet came into being after the 1996 parliamentary elections, which were the first parliamentary elections since the establishment of the Czech Republic . After the elections, the incumbent Prime Minister Václav Klaus and party chairman of the ODS lacked exactly one vote to continue governing with 99 out of 200 parliamentary seats to continue his previous bourgeois government coalition. In addition to the ČSSD Social Democrats, only the Communist MPs from the KSČM and the nationalists from the SPR-RSČ were represented in parliament, who, due to their ideological stance, could not be considered to support the government. The government therefore concluded an agreement with the chairman of the ČSSD, Miloš Zeman . He was elected President of Parliament. To compensate for this, the 61 Social Democratic MPs did not take part in the vote of confidence and enabled the government to confirm with 98 out of 138 votes - which was sufficient according to the constitution.

The cabinet collapsed in late 1997 as a result of an ODS party donation scandal. The ODS ministers Jan Ruml and Ivan Pilip then demanded Klaus' resignation as party leader. As a result, the coalition partners KDU-ČSL and ODA left the government, Klaus resigned as Prime Minister on November 30, 1997. The government remained provisionally in office until January 2, 1998, when the governor of the Czech State Bank Josef Tošovský formed the Josef Tošovský government. Ruml and Pilip left the ODS and founded the "Freedom Union" ( US-DEU ).

Government composition

The cabinet had 16 ministers (15 from May 2 to 12, 1997 and from October 23 to November 8, 1997).

Office	Surname	Political party
Prime Minister	Václav Klaus	ODS
Deputy Prime Minister	Jan Kalvoda until January 7, 1997	ODA
	Jiří Skalický from June 2, 1997	ODA
Deputy Prime Minister	Ivan Kočárník from June 16, 1997	ODS
Deputy Prime Minister	Josef Lux	KDU-ČSL
Deputy Prime Minister	Josef Zieliec until October 23, 1997	ODS
	Jaroslav Šedivý from November 8, 1997	independent
Foreign minister	Josef Zieliec until October 23, 1997	ODS
	Jaroslav Šedivý from November 8, 1997	independent
Minister of Justice	Jan Kalvoda until January 7, 1997	ODA
	Vlasta Parkanová from January 7, 1997	ODA
Finance minister	Ivan Kočárník until June 2, 1997	ODS
	Ivan Pilip from June 2, 1997	ODS
Environment Minister	Jiří Skalický	ODA
Minister of Agriculture	Josef Lux	KDU-ČSL
Minister for Industry and Trade	Vladimír Dlouhý until June 2, 1997	ODA
	Karel Kühnl from June 3, 1997	ODA
Minister for Education, Youth and Sport	Ivan Pilip until June 2, 1997	ODS
	Jiří Gruša from June 3, 1997	independent
Interior minister	Jan Ruml until November 7, 1997	ODS
	Jindřich Vodička from November 8, 1997	ODS
Minister for Labor and Social Affairs	Jindřich Vodička until November 8, 1997	ODS
	Stanislav Volák from November 8, 1997	ODS
Minister of transport	Martin Říman	ODS
Minister of Economic Affairs (from autumn 1996 "Minister for Local Development")	Jaromír Schneider until May 2, 1997 (resigned April 9)	KDU-ČSL
	Tomáš Kvapil from May 12, 1997	KDU-ČSL
Minister of Health	Jan Stráský	ODS
Minister of Culture	Jaromír Talíř	KDU-ČSL
Defense Minister	Miloslav Výborný	KDU-ČSL
Minister with no portfolio	Pavel Bratinka	ODA

See also

• Governments of the Czech Republic