Czech PM submits resignation after losing confidence vote

The Czech cabinet led by Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok on Tuesday submitted its resignation to President Milos Zeman after it failed to win a vote of confidence in parliament last Wednesday. Zeman accepted the resignation and asked the current cabinet to continue working until a new government is appointed. The president thanked Rusnok for his government's work. "Let me thank you very much for the work your cabinet has done so far and ask you and your cabinet to exercise your posts until the establishment of a new cabinet, which, I hope, will emerge from free elections," Zeman said. The Chamber of Deputies will take a vote on its own dissolution on Aug. 20 to provoke early polls, which might be held in October. It seems that the proposal will gain support of the necessary constitutional majority of at least 120 of the house's 200 members. After former Prime Minister Petr Necas resigned over a spy and bribery scandal, Zeman appointed Rusnok as prime minister of a caretaker government on July 10 against the will of the parties in parliament.