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The new government in Prague wants to amend the Constitution to enshrine the Czech koruna as the country’s official currency and guarantee the right to use cash, not just cards. Why did you make this promise and will it be fulfilled?
The new right-wing populist government of Andrej Babis has made a firm promise to ensure that the Czech Republic never adopt or euro.
Instead, the government will seek to enshrine the Czech koruna as the official currency and guarantee the right to use cash.
“We commit to our government does not adopt the euro nor take any measures for its introduction”, reads the political program approved by the new government — a coalition between Babis’s ANO party, the eurosceptic “Motoristas por Si Seems” and the far-right SPD party — at its first cabinet meeting, on Monday.
“We will propose to Parliament that a Czech crown be enshrined in the Constitution of the Czech Republic — together with the right to hold and use cash as official currency.”
Will the Czech government be able to fulfill its promise?
It’s a big promise and — for now — an empty promise. Babis’ government holds 108 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. But changing the Constitution requires a three-fifths majority, that is, a minimum of 120 of the 200 deputies.
Even if this obstacle were overcome, there would still be the Senate, and the requirement is even greater: a majority of three-fifths of all senators present in the upper chamber, made up of 81 seats, would be needed to support the law.
But for now, only 15 are lined up with the government.
It is true that Czech President Petr Pavel does not have veto power over constitutional acts; it just promulgates them. But parliamentary arithmetic seems to render this political promise innocuous.
So why bother doing it?
A political gesture
“It’s a political gesture,” said Robert Brestan, editor-in-chief of the independent news outlet Hlidaci Pes (Watchdog).
“It’s a tacit demonstration of resistance to the euroor more broadly to the European Union, on the part of the government coalition, especially the SPD. Their voters react to this,” he told DW.
“The probability of a paragraph about ‘the Czech crown for all eternity‘Polluting the Czech Constitution is — in my opinion — essentially null,” said Brestan. “The coalition does not have enough votes for this, neither in the Chamber of Deputies nor in the Senate.”
The symbolism of cash
O right to use cashhowever, is a common complaint among populist and far-right parties across Europe.
It has little to do with convenience and more to do with symbolism; opposition encompasses distrust in the State and its institutions; cash is presented as protection against surveillance, control or arbitrary power.
There is a widespread fear in far-right circles of a “digitization imposed from top to bottom“, which is often associated with fears of social credit systems or “digital totalitarianism”.
The declaration is in line with anti-EU sentiment, expresses resistance to harmonization perceived as being driven by Brussels, and calls for sovereignty and individual freedom.
Czechs already have the right to use cash
Robert Brestan, however, highlights that some government representatives seem to have a personal predilection for keep your possessions under the mattress.
“In his heritage declaration, for example, deputy Filip Turek, from the Motorist Party, stated that keeps nine million crowns [cerca de 370 mil euros] in cash. Jindrich Rajchl [deputado eleito pelo SPD]in turn, said he had six million. Which is… strange,” he said.
Brestan also highlighted that the right to use cash is already enshrined in Czech law — Law No. 136/2011 Coll. on the circulation of notes and coins. Any merchant who refuses to accept cash has already you are breaking the lawunless there are clear extenuating circumstances.
As he points out, it is usually the opposite situation — when a store does not accept cards — that causes public anger. You Czechs are a digital nationwith their hands constantly attentive to their smartphones, ready to use Apple Pay or Google Pay.
What role does the euro play in all this?
To Czech Republic formally committed to adopting the euro when it joined the European Union in 2004. Since then, however, successive governments have postponed the potential adoption date.
With Babis’ government, this point is now a vague speck blinking on the distant horizon, almost invisible. The Czech population also remains largely hostile to the adoption of the single European currency.
“[A oposição pública à adopção do euro] is deep and the issue is politically very sensitive,” said Martin Ehl, chief analyst at the economic newspaper Hospodarske noviny.
“The fear is linked to skepticism surrounding the eurozone crisis in the past, feelings about sovereignty and possibility of price increases“, Ehl tells DW.
“Considering traditional Czech euroscepticism — with former President Václav Klaus dominating the discourse on Europe for decades — as well as a recent rise in populism and nationalism, it would be political suicide for any politician or party to push for the introduction of the euro,” he continued.
What do Czech companies and citizens think?
It is known that many Czech companies are in favor of adopting the euro and many already use it in transactions. But Martin Ehl said his influence on the country’s politicians — even in Babis’s “pro-market” government — is limited.
“It’s a very political issue that can be used hysterically by anyone — which is why companies fear a popular backlash as much as politicians,” said Ehl.
A minority among observers believes that companies and the Czech population will gradually adopt the euroregardless of everything, and that the government and the central bank will have to follow suit.
Martin Ehl is not convinced.
“I don’t see this as a drastic change. For example, there are almost no mortgages denominated in euros, which could be a sign that Czechs trust the euro more than the krone.”
The last unknown is President Petr Pavel, who enjoys a popular mandate and has called for the nation to at least begin discussing its commitment to adopting the euro, under the terms of its EU membership two decades ago. So far, it’s a call that has fallen on deaf ears.
