The opposition ANO movement is once again taking the issue of reforming the EU migration system to the Czech Chamber of Deputies. ANO President Andrej Babis will formally call on Prime Minister Petr Fiala to change the Czech Republic’s position on the issue at the next European Council meeting, ANO parliamentary group leader Alena Schillerová told a press conference in Prague on Tuesday.
The Czech Republic is currently backing the EU’s new migration and asylum package aimed at introducing a binding so called “solidarity mechanism” between EU member states. V4 country Slovakia had abstained, while Hungary and Poland have both voted against the new European migrant distribution deal.
Alena Schillerová said
the reform proposal adopted by the interior ministers threatens the security and sovereignty of the Czech Republic and should be rejected by the European Council of EU heads of state and government.
She announced that Andrej Babis will propose to put the issue on the agenda of the next session of the lower house of parliament and will formally call on Prime Minister Petr Fiala to change the Czech position and prevent the adoption of the reforms.
The debate on the migration and asylum reform package was already put on the agenda two weeks ago by the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies. After a heated debate lasting more than four hours, the Chamber of Deputies did not approve the opposition’s proposals to reject the EU migration package. However, a draft resolution by the governing coalition was adopted, stating that last week’s agreement by EU interior ministers on migration “is in line with the long-term interests of the Czech Republic, is based on financial solidarity between member states and does not include the mandatory distribution of refugees”.
The enormous u-turn of by the current Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who in 2015 photographed himself at Hungary’s southern border in support of the fence being built to prevent illegal entries, is clearly costing him votes. According to recent polls, his party, ODS, that received 27.8 percent in a coalition with other smaller parties (SPOLU) during the 2021 election, now trails at a mere 14 percent, while his other two former partners would not even reach the 5 percent threshold should elections be held today.
On the other hand, Andrej Babis’ ANO movement, who have similarly received 27 percent in 2021, are now the most popular party in Czechia with 33.5 percent. In the past, Babis had credited the successful blocking of the EU’s migrant quota proposal with a strong co-operation among Vishegrad 4 member-states, most notably his friendship with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In a tweet published after Czechia had voted for Brussel’s migrant quotas Babis wrote that “Vít Rakušan (minister of interior) is lying unbelievably about illegal migration. Without any mandate, he has destroyed everything we fought against and clearly rejected in 2019 and 2020. Instead of defending the interests of our citizens, he has sold out our sovereignty. No one can tell us who will live in our country. Europe has now opened its doors wide to smugglers”.
Source : Hungary Today
