Beijing, May 14 (CTK correspondent) – President Milos Zeman told journalists on Sunday that he was ready to accept Alena Schillerova (ANO) as the new finance minister if she were a candidate of ANO, but if Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka did not propose her, the coalition agreement should be terminated.
Zeman said if he were Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO), he would have done so long time ago and started a determined election campaign.
“The proposal is quite problematic,” CSSD deputy chairman Lubomir Zaoralek told Czech Television (CT) on Sunday.
He repeated the arguments against Schillerova, specifically her passivity within the investigation into the one-crown bonds, an operation the critics suspect of tax evasion.
Babis’s Agrofert holding bought the bonds before he became the finance minister.
Zaoralek said in the Chamber of Deputies Schillerova had said the bonds affair could not be investigated.
“She has identified with this, while she is the direct partner for the tax office. I cannot imagine a person who has refused this to take up the office now,” Zaoralek said.
Zeman said he insisted on the observance of the coalition pact as he was taught that agreements should be observed.
Zeman said if Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) did not propose Schillerova, he would deal with the situation by turning to the Constitutional Court.
“In fact, this would be the second violation of the coalition pact,” he added.
The first violation was Sobotka’s proposal to sack Babis without ANO’s consent, Zeman said.
