Prague, Nov 23 (CTK) – Andrej Babis wants the regional governors who were elected to the lower house of the Czech parliament for his ANO movement to give up one of the posts, he told CTK on Thursday.
“I talked about it with the governors several times and I don’t agree with them keeping both posts. On the other hand, I can understand that people elected them, gave them preferential votes and therefore put big trust in them. And this trust cannot be rejected,” Babis said.
He said he nevertheless hoped that the governors would choose only one of the posts after some time.
In early November, the broad leadership of ANO called on the party’s regional governors who were elected to the Chamber of Deputies in late October to choose one of the two posts.
Apart from Prague, the country has 13 regions and four of them are headed by ANO members all of whom were elected to the lower house a month ago.
South Moravia Governor Bohumil Simek was elected to the Chamber, however, he was running for ANO in both the regional and parliamentary elections as an unaffiliated candidate.
Each of ANO’s governors arrived at a different decision at the moment, Babis said.
Central Bohemia Governor Jaroslava Pokorna Jermanova announced previously that she would give up her mandate of a lower house deputy.
On Wednesday, Karlovy Vary Region’s Governor Jana Vildumetzova said she would keep her MP’s mandate and post of governor, but give up her governor’s salary.
Moravia-Silesia Governor Ivo Vondrak said previously he agreed with ANO’s leadership that he would keep both posts. Babis said Vondrak is an expert in schools and he would work on a reform of the education system in the Chamber of Deputies.
Olomouc Region’s Governor Ladislav Oklestek told CTK on Tuesday that he has not made up his mind yet.
