Opposition parties in the Czech Republic are proposing an extraordinary meeting and want to express no confidence in the government of Andrej Babiš after, according to them, the prime minister trivialized the foreign minister’s controversial messages addressed to the president. They consider Babiš’s insufficient attitude towards the whole case to be a fundamental problem.
The Czech opposition wants to initiate the convening of an extraordinary session of the Chamber of Deputies, at which it wants to express no confidence in the government of Andrej Babiš. Representatives of all opposition parties announced this at a joint press conference on Wednesday. According to them, the reason is not only the reports of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Macinka addressed to the President, but also the Prime Minister’s approach to the whole case. They consider his statement in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to be insufficient, according to them, he trivialized the whole situation, informs the TASR reporter in Prague.
The opposition expected the prime minister to distance himself from Macinka’s reports. “We have only witnessed the total trivialization of Petr Macinka’s extortion reports. The prime minister euphemistically refers to these mafia methods as something unfortunate. No distance, no refusal, no apology to the president. This government has no moral principles and only solves the seat for Filip Turk. That is why we will call for a vote of no confidence,” wrote the chairman of the STAN movement Vít Rakušan on the X social network.
The reaction of Babiš and the president
On Wednesday morning, Babiš repeated his reaction from Tuesday in front of the deputies, that he considers the statements of the head of diplomacy in the messages with the president’s adviser to be unfortunate, but at the same time he understands his disappointment that the president did not appoint Filip Turk, a deputy from the Motorists, to the position of minister, even though, according to him, the party gave way to him. He wants to solve the situation with both politicians, but not publicly. He also emphasized that he does not want to wage a trench war with Prague Castle.
On Tuesday, the Czech president published the messages that Macinka sent to Pavlo’s adviser, Petr Kolář. He writes in them that he is facing an irreversible decision, “how to proceed with the president”. If Pavel had appointed Turk as Minister of the Environment, he would have peace of mind. If he does not enter into any negotiations on this matter, Macinka is ready to “brutally” fight for the Turk, and the consequences are said to surprise Pavel.
