Prague, June 5 (CTK) – The talk of Finance Minister and ANO head Andrej Babis about a conspiracy against him and about the government partners, the CSSD and KDU-CSL, outvoting him on some economic points was dismissed by Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Belobradek, KDU-CSL chairman, on Prima television yesterday.
Prime Minister and Social Democrat (CSSD) head Bohuslav Sobotka said it happens that a minister does not succeed at the government sometimes, but this must not be interpreted as the end of the government coalition, in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec on public Czech Television (CT) later yesterday.
“Mr Babis has long been saying that all are against him and that all have conspired against him, and we are only waiting for Martians appearing among the plotters,” Belobradek said with irony.
He said “we are voting according to what we believe to be correct,” Belobradek said about his party’s ministers.
Sobotka said he believes the CSSD-ANO-KDU-CSL coalition government will complete its four-year term that expires in the autumn of 2017.
Babis complained of the government coalition partners’ behaviour after a cabinet meeting at the end of May when the ministers debated raising the health insurance fees the state pays for certain groups of inhabitants and an increase in spending on science.
Babis said his government coalition partners acted based on the model “you will approve science for me, I will approve the state health care fees for you.”
Sobotka said the approved proposals are in consistence with the government’s policy statement.
“We must take the possibilities of the budget into consideration, but the government must solve the existing problems,” he said.
Belobradek said the issues mentioned were not fundamental ones. The coalition must agree on the 2017 state budget bill, but it was not discussed at the meeting of which Babis speaks, he said.
Sobotka said the budget is not only a matter of the Finance Minister and that he expects the government to reach agreement on it in September.
ms/dr
