Prague, Jan 17 (CTK) – Tens of Czech personalities have signed a petition, called Barriers of Democracy and citing 19 principles of a responsible government, asking parties to observe the principles of democratic governance, Tereza Kristofova, from the Reconstruction of the State group, told journalists on Wednesday.
The principles relate to the approval of legislation and preservation of the independence of courts, the civil service and the media.
The activists believe some politicians are trying to violate them, Kristofova said.
The list of the democratic rules was drawn up by former prime minister and dissident Petr Pithart, lawyers Karel Elias and Marek Antos, sociologist Lukas Linek, economist Edvard Outrata, political analyst Lukas Jelinek and experts from the Reconstruction of the State.
It has been signed by philosopher and dissident Jan Sokol, astronomer Jiri Grygar, Catholic theologian Tomas Halik, President of the Supreme Auditing Office (NKU) Miloslav Kala, general director of the public broadcaster Czech Television Petr Dvorak and another almost 700 people.
In the weeks to come, Reconstruction of the State activists want to address representatives of parties, government members and lawmakers and ask them to sign the petition, too.
One of the “barriers” says the government that does not gain confidence in the Chamber of Deputies should only rule in resignation for a short, necessary time.
This is an obvious allusion to President Milos Zeman’s plan to let Prime Minister Andrej Babis rule for a time that may not be limited, although it lost the confidence vote on Tuesday.
The petition also says the government should respect the position of the public media and not to take any steps to subordinate the media outlets to the executive power even more.
