Czech PM Sobotka hands in his gov't's resignation

PRAGUE, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Outgoing Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka handed in the resignation of his government to the Czech presidential office on Wednesday.

Sobotka's government approved its resignation at a meeting earlier on Wednesday and it is likely to rule the country till Dec. 13 when President Milos Zeman plans to appoint the new minority government of Andrej Babis, said government spokesman Martin Ayrer.

Ayrer said Sobotka sent a representative of the government office to deliver the resignation. Sobotka said he considered this to be the fastest way to deliver the resignation to the presidential office, so that they do not waste time on the process of establishing a new government.

This is the first time in the history of the Czech Republic that the outgoing prime minister has not gone to announce the end of his government personally. The relations between Sobotka and Zeman have been bad in recent months. Zeman's spokesman, Jiri Ovcacek, said the president planned to accept the resignation of Sobotka's government on Dec. 6.

Sobotka's cabinet was appointed on Jan. 29, 2014. It is the third government to complete the whole of its four-year mandate in Czech history since its independence in 1993. In the past four years, the outgoing cabinet pushed through important legislation such as the civil service law and abolished patients' health care regulatory fees. Tax reliefs for families with children were repeatedly raised, and a third, lowest VAT rate introduced for books, infant formula and medicines. Systems of electronic registration of sales and ledger statements were introduced as steps to curb tax evasion. Enditem