Brno, March 5 (CTK) – The Civic Democrat (ODS) deputy group will propose on Tuesday that Communist (KSCM) MP Zdenek Ondracek be sacked as head of the Czech Chamber of Deputies’ commission supervising the General Inspection of Security Corps (GIBS), ODS chairman Petr Fiala said at a demonstration in Brno on Monday.
The government ANO will debate the proposal for Ondracek’s dismissal as well.
Ondracek’s nomination for the post and his election have raised a controversy due to his past of a police officer under the Communist regime and a member of the riot police unit, who took part in a crackdown on anti-Communist demonstrators in 1989.
Some 2000 people attended the one-hour demonstration against Ondracek’s election in Brno, the second largest town in the Czech Republic, tonight, according to police estimates.
Fiala, who was the main speaker at the rally, said Ondracek’s election was no trivial matter that can be ignored. “This is a symbol and a blow into the face of democracy,” Fiala added.
The tendency to restore “old political orders” must be resisted, Masaryk University Rector Mikulas Bek said.
The demonstrators carried banners, many of which were aimed against ANO and its chairman PM Babis, hinting at his cooperation with the StB communist secret police, which he denies.
People were signing a petition for the election of a new head of the GIBS commission that will be delivered to the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday.
The Academic Senate of the Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (JAMU) and academics from the Masaryk University in Brno also protested against Ondracek’s election.
Similar rallies against Ondracek’s election were held in the centre of Prague and in other towns all over the country on Monday.
The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, elected Ondracek last Friday. He received 79 votes, one more than it was necessary for his election.
Ondracek was running for the post repeatedly. The Chamber of Deputies did not elect him either last December or in January. He was the only candidate for the post then.
The right-wing opposition sharply criticised Ondracek’s election, pointing to his communist past. It is apparent that not only the KSCM voted for him as the party has just 15 seats in the lower house.
