Archive: Domestic affairs | Politics

Czech doctor and political activist Marek Hilšer first made headlines in 2014, when he and a colleague stripped to the waist at a government press conference to protest Russian aggression towards Ukraine and show support for the EU and Nato. Now a household name – having staged a bid for the presidency in a grassroots campaign – he is running for the Senate, to represent Prague districts 2 and 3. I spoke to Dr Hilšer after he officially announced his candidacy on Tuesday at a Prague café.

In response to numerous complaints with regard to abuse of the Czech visa system in Ukraine, the Czech consulate in Lvov has moved to simplify and speed up the process. Steps have been taken to root out corruption by local middlemen who blocked the registration system, making it virtually impossible for anyone else to sign up for months. Applicants will now be able to book by phone, eliminating the long waiting lines outside the consulate and the waiting time for a visa should be reduced from 130 days to 75.

The Party of Mayors and Independents, which is represented in the Senate, has said it will push the upper chamber to pass a resolution rejecting the idea of a law which would enable Czechs to vote on whether to leave the EU and NATO.

Party leader Petr Gazdík said this would make it clear that the efforts of the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party to get such a law approved and support for the idea from the Communist Party have no chance of leading to fruition. All constitutional laws need to win approval in the Senate.

The Slovak Supreme Court has rejected a petition from Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš with regard to his ongoing dispute with the Slovak National Memory Institute over his communist past.

Mr. Babiš argues that he was wrongly listed as an agent of Czechoslovakia’s Communist-era secret police in the institute’s records. A previous complaint by him was rejected by the Regional Court in Bratislava.

Prime Minister Babiš said on Wednesday that he would sue Slovakia in the European Court of Human Rights over the allegations.

Babiš, a Slovak entrepreneur who now has Czech citizenship, maintains that, as an employee of a foreign trade firm, he had met with the secret police, but never pledged to cooperate.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who was re-appointed to the post on Wednesday, said that he would sue Slovakia in the European Court of Human Rights over allegations that he had been an informer for the Communist-era secret police.

The Regional Court in Bratislava last February rejected a petition from Mr. Babiš, who argued that he was wrongly listed as an agent of Czechoslovakia’s Communist-era secret police in the records of the Slovak National Memory Institute, which handles historical archives.

Babiš, a Slovak entrepreneur who now has Czech citizenship, maintains that, as an employee of a foreign trade firm, he had met with the secret police, but never pledged to cooperate.

As efforts to form a new minority coalition government of the ANO party and the Social Democrats tolerated by the Communists reach their final stage, the Communist Party has been milking the situation to its best advantage. After rocking the boat over the country’s foreign missions, the party now says that unless its bill on taxing Church restitutions passes through the lower house the two parties can look for support elsewhere.

The head of the Communists’ deputies group, Pavel Kováčik, says the party will only support a mooted ANO-Social Democrats minority coalition if financial compensation paid to churches for property seized during the communist era is taxed. The Communists are currently discussing a deal with ANO under which the former would support a government helmed by them in key lower house votes.

Speaking on a TV debate show on Sunday, Mr. Kováčik said disagreements over foreign policy were one reason the Communists were not entering coalition with ANO but would only support such a government.

ANO, the Social Democrats and Freedom and Direct Democracy have previously given their backing to a Communist bill that would tax compensation paid to churches under a major restitution bill approved in 2012.

An internal referendum of the Social Democrats on whether to take part in a coalition government with ANO gets underway on Monday. The referendum, which will run until June 14, will be valid if at least a quarter of the party membership takes part. The results will be published on June 15.

The Social Democrats last week announced the names of the party’s nominees for the five portfolios the Social Democrats should get in the cabinet. The names included party leader Jan Hamáček, who should head the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The party also insists on Miroslav Poche’s candidature for the post of foreign minister, despite president Zeman’s disapproval.

The Social Democrats have been deeply divided about forming a government with ANO leader Andrej Babiš, who is facing criminal charges for alleged EU subsidy fraud, and the result of the referendum is expected to be tight.

The Senate on Thursday approved the planned reinforcement of some of the current military missions abroad as well as presence of new troops in the Baltics. However, the missions are yet to be approved by the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, whose defence committee did not issue any recommendation last week.

Communist party leaders said last week they had a problem with increased Czech participation in missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and the possibility of the Czech army playing a role in a NATO rapid reaction force in the Baltic States.

They have warned that they could refuse to support a proposed ANO-Social Democrat minority coalition government if the missions are boosted.

Czech defence minister Karla Šlechtová has warned that she does not necessarily have to be in a new government headed by current prime minister and ANO leader Andrej Babiš.

Šlechtová’s comments follow revelations in Wednesday’s edition of the daily Lidové Noviny that she paid hundreds of thousands of crowns for the use of the VIP airport lounges at Prague’s airport in her previous post as minister for regional development.

Šlechtová has accused the newspaper, which is owned by Babiš, of waging a campaign against her.

The minister was in recent months frequently floated as an alternative ANO leader who might be tasked with creating a new government if Babiš failed.