Prague, July 19 (CTK) – The Czech Senate will deal with a petition against the anti-smoking law which w s signed by over 23,000 people, Jiri Oberfalzer (Civic Democrats, ODS), chairman of the mandate and immunity committee of the upper house of parliament who took over it today, has said.
According to the organisers, the petition aims at the abolition of the absolute ban on smoking in restaurants and pubs which, they say, have lost guests due to the law and some have gone bankrupt.
The petition was also supported by Senate deputy chairman Jaroslav Kubera (ODS), who has signed a proposal for the ban’s abolition sent to the Constitutional Court (US).
“The law is beyond the edge. Instead of providing for the two groups (of smokers and non-smokers) not standing in the way of one another, it found a radical solution,” Kubera said.
Twenty senators, headed by Kubera and Ivo Valenta (for the Freeholders Party), sent their proposal to abolish the ban on smoking in restaurants and on selling alcohol from vending machines to the US in March.
The signatories say the law, which took effect at the end of May, inadmissibly interferes in citizens’ freedom. They wrote that it will mar the investments of thousands of bar and restaurant owners.
The senators did not demand the abolishing of the law as a whole, but only some of its provisions.
An absolute ban on smoking applies to the interiors of restaurants, theatres and cinemas.
The law also bans smoking on platforms and the use of electronic cigarettes in hospitals, schools and shopping centres and the sale of cigarettes from vending machines.
The senators also criticised the provision that holds restaurant owners responsible for the damage caused by drunk persons.
They also want the limitation of the sale and serving of alcohol and tobacco products at events destined mainly for children to be abolished.
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