Half-impeached

Impeachment in the American sense is the leveling of charges against a government official, usually meaning the president. The House "impeaches" the president by approving the charges, and the Senate either convicts him and removes him from office, or exonerates him. It's a two-step process. Under the Czech system, it's a three-step process, with the final decision vested in the Constitutional Court. Impeachment itself (leveling of charges) requires two steps, and one of them was successfully completed yesterday. Miloš Zeman was half-impeached as president of the Czech Republic. Forty-eight of the 81 senators were present and voted to impeach, while 33 either voted No (20), abstained (7) or were absent (6). For whatever reason, 41% of all senators did not vote to impeach the president, while 59% did. Regardless of how it turns out in the lower chamber, the fact remains that 59% of all Czech senators have declared that their president should be removed from office.