Brussels, July 12 (CTK) – It is sad that the Communists are re-achieving political positions, Manfred Weber, head of the EP’s strongest faction, the European People’s Party (EPP), said in reaction to the Czech parliament’s expression of confidence in a communist-backed minority cabinet in the early hours on Thursday.
The Czech Communist Party’s (KSCM) newly-gained influence on the government has also been highlighted by the world press agencies and the European press.
It is very sad that the Communists are returning to decisive political positions for the first time since the 1989 collapse of the communist regime in the country. The responsibility for this rests with the new cabinet, Weber, whom servers such as Politico describe as the most influential MEP, said.
On behalf of the EPP, he called on Czech PM Andrej Babis (ANO) to make this political step transparent and tell the public what the Communists will receive in exchange for their support.
The French press agency AFP reacted to Czech parliament’s expression of confidence in Babis’s cabinet saying that this is the first Czech government supported by the Communists since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.
It mentions the prosecution Babis, a billionaire, faces for a suspected EU subsidy fraud.
The AFP describes the KSCM as an openly pro-Russian and anti-NATO party, which has supported the government in exchange for important posts in state-controlled companies.
The Reuters agency wrote that Babis rejected some of the Communist demands.
According to the AP agency, the deal between Babis and the KSCM is too opaque to give a clear idea of the influence the Communists will have on the cabinet.
The server of the British daily The Guardian writes that the Czech Communists are returning to governance in the role of mediators of power. Although the KSCM formally stays outside the government coalition, the new deal means the restoration of its influence and responsibility for the first time since the 1989 “Velvet Revolution,” which terminated the 41-year Communist rule in then Czechoslovakia, The Guardian writes.
Babis’s 15-seat cabinet is comprised of 10 ministers for his ANO and five ministers for the Social Democratic Party (CSSD), the junior government partner. ANO, the clear winner of the October 2017 elections, and the CSSD together have 93 seats in the 200-Chamber of Deputies, while the KSCM has 15 seats.
The cabinet sailed through the confidence vote with the KSCM’s support in the small hours on Thursday.
