Prague, July 9 (CTK) – The politicians seeking a solution to the migration crisis including humanitarian respect and solidarity with other European countries deserve acknowledgement since 83 percent of Czechs say they are afraid of refugees, Petr Honzejk writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN) Thursday.
He is referring to a public opinion poll conducted by the Median agency.
Honzejk writes that respect is mainly due to the senior government Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) despite its initial hesitation.
Its chairman and Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has promised to voluntarily accept hundreds of refugees and released money for a joint struggle of the European Union against people smugglers, Honzejk writes.
At is meeting late on Wednesday, the government decided that the Czech Republic will accept 1500 refugees by 2017, of whom 1100 would be from Italy and Greece and 400 from refugee camps in Jordan and Kurdistan.
The junior government Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) also deserve acknowledgement. True, their chairman Pavel Belobradek speaks about “priority” accepting Christian refugees, which is morally questionable, but he does not at least resort to isolationism, Honzejk writes.
The situation in other parties is worse. “Not to accept anyone, close the border, drown refugee ships,” this is what parties labelling themselves as liberal say, Honzejk writes.
Petr Fiala, chairman of the rightist opposition Civic Democrats (ODS), has written a text with an apocalyptic headline reading “We will not find refuge from the refugees,” in which he advises Europe what it should do not to allow any refugee to step on the continent, Honzejk writes.
He writes that some “liberal” politicians even argue on the level of the lowest-category pub when they say “those who are not against immigration should take the refugees to their homes.”
All populists, like Fiala or Jaroslava Jermanova (ANO), deputy chairwoman of the Chamber of Deputies, place emphasis on Christian values in their anti-immigration argumentation, Honzejk writes.
He writes that this is ridiculous in a country with a predominant share of atheists, but even worse, it is in direct contradiction to Christianity.
Honzejk writes that it should be closely watched who is courageous in their opinions and who only politically capitalises on fear.
