Majer II Cabinet (WFAC)

Václav Majer's second cabinet was formed on 18 June 1946 following the 1946 federal election. It was a comprising the six parties of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks; the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), the Republican Party (RS), the Czechoslovak People's Party (ČSL), the Slovak People's Party (SĽS), the Czechoslovak National Social Party (ČSNS) and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ).

Parties involved in the cabinet
The government was composed by the following parties:

July 1947 crisis
By the summer of 1947 the KSČ had alienated whole blocs of potential voters. The activities of the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Václav Nosek, were acutely offensive to many citizens; workers were angry at Communist demands that they increase output without being given higher wages, while farmers were offended by Communist's talk of collectivization. The general expectation was that the Communists would be soundly defeated in the May 1950 elections.

On 5 June 1947 U.S. Secretary of State made an offer of American aid to promote European recovery and reconstruction. The majority of the Czechoslovak parties, including Majer and the Social Democrats, were eager to share in the U.S. aid, which they needed in order to complete the Four-Year Economic Plan of 1947–1950. The Communists were sceptic to the offer, but noneless agreed to accept the invitation. On 4 July the cabinet voted unanimously to accept the invitation to send a delegation to a preliminary conference of European states in Paris to discuss the Marshall Plan scheduled on 12 July.

The unanimous acceptance of the Marshall Plan by the cabinet precipitated the so-called July crisis. Jan Masaryk, the foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, was summoned to Moscow on 9 July and berated by Stalin for considering Czechoslovakia's possible involvement with and joining of the Marshall Plan. Stalin warned that by accepting the plan the Soviet Union would consider this as a signal of Czechoslovakia aligning themselves with the West, and thus damage Soviet-Czechoslovak relations. The Czechoslovaks chose nonetheless to attend the summit on 12 July.

The Communist acceptance of the offer was a result of a misunderstanding brought about by Soviet inefficiency. Gottwald had sought advance Soviet approval for accepting the invitation, but Valerian Zorin, the Soviet ambassador, and M. Bodrov, the charge d'affaires in Czechoslovakia, lacked instructions. Failing to get a reply from Moscow in time, the Communist cabinet members voted in favour of accepting the invitation. Upon receiving instructions from Moscow not to accept the invitation, the Communist Party withdrew their acceptance and voiced their opposition to the invitation, citing fears that the American plan would result in the "economic enslavement of Czechoslovakia."

In the political chaos which ensued, Majer engineered the expulsion of all communist ministers from the cabinet on 18 July. Majer did this under pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Marshall, who had informed him that anti-communism was a pre-condition for receiving American aid. The Communists, who had considered leaving the government as a result of the acceptance of the Marshall Aid, decided however remain in the National Front for the remainder of the term. The acceptance of the Marshall Plan and the expulsion of the Communists also resulted in a rift in Czechoslovak-Soviet relations, which were only resolved by the signing of the Declaration of Neutrality of 4 April 1951. Czechoslovakia eventually benefitted from $768 million in aid between 1948-1951 by the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program, ERP).