The President of the Czech Senate, Miloš Vystrčil, considers the decision of the government of Andrej Babiš not to provide him with a plane for the trip to Taiwan a betrayal. According to him, it is a knife in the back especially for the delegation of businessmen, scientists and cultural workers who were supposed to accompany him. He described the decision as illogical, as the Czech Republic’s cooperation with Taiwan is, according to him, very successful. Babiš explained this step over the weekend as follows: that his government will make a pragmatic and not value policy. However, according to Vystrčil, one cannot do without the other. He said this on Tuesday at a press conference in the Senate, reports TASR in Prague.
“It is absolute nonsense to do a pragmatic policy without being of value. And if someone does that, they are doing an opportunistic policy. A policy for themselves that threatens the international order, the rules, the existence of an order that is based on rules and is extremely important for medium-sized and small countries. Because if order and rules do not apply, the strongest will be right. And we already know that. Then authoritarian regimes come into play. And that’s what we want?” asked himself a question He stuck out.
He applied for a government special in the standard way. And although, according to him, they reserved it for him at first, the government subsequently decided not to provide it. “For me, it’s petty, I’ll fly the line. But it’s a knife in the back from the Czech government to our entrepreneurs, university workers, scientific and research workers and representatives of culture. The government said to all of them: we’re coughing on you, fly to Taiwan to do your business as you want. We are not interested in your business in Taiwan.” the head of the Senate was angry.
According to him, a possible reason could be the effort of the new government cabinet to “please” China or the effort to dictate and manage everything. Some Czech media speculate that Babiš’s potential trip to China this year could be behind the rejection of the government special for Vystrčil. However, the prime minister refused and said on Tuesday that he is not planning anything like that.
According to Vystrčil, he respects that the government is responsible for the official foreign policy of the Czech Republic, but he recalled parliamentary diplomacy, which, according to him, should complement this official policy. He pointed out that he has nothing against trade between the Czech Republic and China, if it is a partnership trade. At the same time, he emphasized that it is important for the Czech Republic to develop cooperation with Taiwan, which is especially important in the field of modern technologies. Vystříl was in Taiwan in 2020, and later also the former head of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová. China has criticized these roads.
