Czech government resigns after losing confidence vote

PRAGUE – The new Czech minority government led by populist billionaire Andrej Babis has resigned after it failed to win a mandatory confidence vote in Parliament last week.

Babis submitted the resignation to President Milos Zeman on Wednesday.

Zeman, Babi's ally, immediately asked Babis to try to form a new government again and said he will swear him in as prime minister in February.

Any new government has to win a parliamentary confidence vote to rule.

Babis' centrist ANO (YES) movement won October's parliamentary election with 78 seats in the 200-seat lower house. But no other parliamentary party agreed to create a majority coalition government with ANO because they consider Babis unsuitable due to fraud charges linked to EU subsidies he faces.

Babis already acknowledged the next government might not include him.