On Tuesday, after 12 hours, Czech deputies interrupted an extraordinary meeting of the lower chamber, at which the opposition wants to express no confidence in the government of Andrej Babiš. The session will continue on Wednesday morning. TASR informs about it.
- The opposition demands a vote of no confidence in the government of Andrej Babiš.
- The meeting was adjourned after 12 hours and will continue on Wednesday.
- They criticized the case of Minister Macinka and the conflict of interests of Babiš.
The meeting started on Tuesday at 11:00 am. As a representative of the opposition, which initiated the meeting, the chairman of the opposition ODS, Martin Kupka, spoke first. After him, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš took the floor, and after him, all the ministers and other representatives of the coalition successively spoke with priority.
Sharp criticism of the opposition
Although the government criticized the convening of the meeting, saying that it only delayed it from work, the opposition was allowed to speak only after almost eight hours. The loudest critic was the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies and head of the SPD, Tomio Okamura, who paradoxically gave the longest speech on Tuesday.
Of the opposition leaders, Zdeněk Hřib, the chairman of the Pirates, was the first to reach the lectern. He criticized the prime minister for the fact that, according to him, he only wanted to keep quiet about the whole case of the SMS messages of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Macinka. He emphasized that the deputies were given a chance to show whether they are willing to trust the government again and thus be jointly responsible for Macink’s behavior. “Today it will not only be about the fact that we will vote on trust or no confidence in the government… We will vote on which direction the Czech Republic should go and who should lead it at a time when the security of Europe has once again become a question of survival,” he pointed out.
Protests and criticism of the government
After him, the chairman of the STAN movement Vít Rakušan took the floor. He pointed out that Macink’s text messages were the last straw, why thousands and tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the Czech Republic on Sunday. According to him, people are also hindered by the permanent conflict of interests of Andrej Babiš, subsidies for large agricultural enterprises, such as Agrofert, or the government’s efforts to “put a muzzle” on public media.
“It’s not just the behavior of one particular minister, that’s just the last straw. It’s about planned and sometimes already partially implemented and often irreversible and long-term interventions into the foundations of a full-fledged and functional democracy… We’re trying to prevent you from destroying something that might almost be impossible to fix,” he justified the convening of this meeting.
Continuation of the meeting
Shortly after 21.00 h. the deputy speaker of the Chamber Jiří Barták announced the beginning of the debate on the motion of no confidence in the government, in which 55 MPs, mainly from the opposition, signed up to speak. At the time the meeting was adjourned, there were still 45 deputies who wanted to speak.
The head of the KDU-ČSL, Marek Výborný, stated that it is inappropriate for Prime Minister Babiš not to be present at the meeting, especially at a time when the Minister of Foreign Affairs is not at the meeting either. Macinka’s absence was also criticized by the vice-chairman of the TOP 09 party and former Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Marek Ženíšek.
A deep crisis of confidence
Ženíšek also stated that the government is failing in the areas of economy, security and respect for institutions. “We are the only country in Europe where the House of Representatives will decide on the extradition of both the Speaker of the House and the Government. This is a deep crisis of trust in the upper echelons of power, which the government not only does not solve, but even normalizes,” he said.
Jan Sviták from the Elders and Independents movement (STAN) called Macinka’s SMS message a “human and moral bottom”.
Vendula Svobodová from Pirátov said that politics is like a team sport, while the whole team is as strong as its weakest link.
At 23.00 h. the meeting was adjourned and will continue on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.
