Czech government survives confidence vote with Communist backing

The minority government of billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis won a parliamentary confidence vote Thursday July 12,2018, becoming the first administration since the 1989 collapse of communism to rely on backing from the Communist Party.

"The parliament has voiced confidence in the cabinet," parliament speaker Radek Vondracek said after a marathon session lasting more than 16 hours.

A total of 105 lawmakers out of 196 present in the 200-seat parliament voted in favour of Babis's minority cabinet, while 91 were against.

It took Babis nine months to form a cabinet after he won the Oct 2017 election  with potential partners initially shunning him over his murky past and allegations of EU subsidy fraud.

He finally struck a minority coalition deal with the Social Democrats in June, but with just 93 seats in the 200-member parliament they must rely on backing from the Communist Party, which controls 15 seats.