Oppositional parties ODS, SPD, KDU-ČSL, and TOP 09 stated that they won’t support the extension of the state of emergency in the Czech Republic if their demands are not satisfied.
Oppositional parties continuously criticized the measures adopted by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the government plans to extend the state of emergency for 30 more days until February 21. The Czech Republic has remained in this state for 176 days since October 5.
The opposition doesn’t agree with the fact that the state of emergency, according to them, allows the government to violate human rights.
“The government is not able to properly justify what exactly it needs, and why we have to keep being in an emergency over and over again,” the ODS chairman, Petr Fiala, stated. The opposition is totally against governmental “improvisations.”
State of emergency is very dangerous for people’s health, Tomio Okamura from SPD stated. He referred to doctors’ complaints about people with serious illnesses who ignore the preventive examinations and miss planned visits due to the state of emergency.
Parties also addressed the problem with the vaccination since the Czech Republic takes longer to deliver vaccines to its citizens than the neighboring countries. Some regions didn’t receive enough vaccination shots. The opposition offered to introduce waivers for those who were affected by the COVID-19, such as a waiver for health and social insurances for self-employed people. Another financial demand is to increase the compensation up to 20 000 czk while the current one is valued at 15 000 czk.
“We will not support further prolongation because the government does not have sufficient and adequate compensation for people who suffered from government’s restrictions to the business, income, livelihood and put them in an unsolvable situation,” Marian Jurečka, the chairman of KDU-ČSL explained.
Minister of Culture, Lubomír Zaorálek, already responded and argued that the suggestions can’t be approved because of the uncertain development of the current situation.
Featured image via vlada.cz
