Czech Chamber of Deputies approves key budget parameters

After two days of wrangling, the Czech Chamber of Deputies has approved the main parameters of the state budget and sent it on to second reading. Ninety-three deputies from the governing coalition voted in favor, while the opposition voted against. Two coalition deputies from the SPD caucus, Zuzana Majerová and Miroslav Ševčík, abstained.

What the budget contains

Compared with this year, revenue is set to rise by 80.8 billion to 2.199 trillion crowns, and spending by 156.8 billion to 2.585 trillion crowns. The state will cover the deficit mainly by taking on more debt. The high deficit was the opposition's chief target of criticism, and it demanded that the government rework the budget, but the coalition had enough votes to push it through.

What comes next and what the fight was about

This is not yet final approval of the budget but a move to second reading. Deputies can no longer change the main parameters: they will now discuss the budgets of individual chapters and propose reallocations within the budget.

The first-reading debate lasted 19.5 hours, starting on Wednesday and ending on Thursday evening. Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (ANO) accused the opposition of obstruction and of breaking the chamber's long-standing rules. Deputy Speaker Jan Skopeček (ODS) rejected that, saying that, for example, nobody had read out texts unrelated to the budget.

For comparison, the first reading of this year's budget, held only in February, took about 14 hours. When Petr Fiala's (ODS) previous government presented its first budget, for 2022, the first reading lasted about 11 hours.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz