Prague, March 6 (CTK) – Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) does not hesitate to stir up the atmosphere of mistrust and danger and make populist proposals for his own benefit and political rise, Petr Tresnak writes in weekly Respekt out yesterday.
He mentions two “far-from-innocent” proposals submitted by Chovanec, which arouse the feeling as if the Czechs were faced with a war and as if they viewed everything unknown as a danger, Tresnak writes.
One of the proposals is a constitutional bill that would make all legal holders of weapons a part of the state security forces, a kind of the Interior Ministry’s armed reserves, Tresnak writes.
When Chovanec presented the plan at a recent cabinet meeting, he caused embarrassment of the government partners.
“It looks really strange,” Deputy PM Pavel Belobradek (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) said, while Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) called it the return of the People’s Militia, the former Communist paramilitary units, Tresnak writes.
Chovanec says the measure is a pragmatic trick to exempt Czech arms holders from the new European directive that tightens the arms possession rules. This is understandable, but is it suitable to use a constitutional bill for such manoeuvring? Tresnak asks.
It ensues from Chovanec’s explanation that the proposal pursues yet another goal. Chovanec is convinced that in the present time of increased danger, the people who possess arms are starting to play the role of protectors of the country. He believes that if an arms holder witnesses a terrorist attack, they can intervene, using their weapon for the benefit of all, Tresnak writes.
Chovanec promotes this regardless of the fact that no Islamic attack has ever occurred in the Czech Republic, that the Muslim minority in the country is negligible and that the history knows almost no cases of similar tragedies being prevented by an alert civilian shooter, Tresnak writes.
Although Chovanec emphasises that his goal is not to support the spread of weapons in society, the proposal clearly promotes arms possession as a form of collective responsibility, Tresnak continues.
This is utter nonsense, however, because violent crime has been on decline, in spite of the high political tension in the world. In addition, the Western experience shows that the spread of weapons in society does not work as a security safeguard. On the contrary, it leads to the rising number of fatal incidents, Tresnak writes.
Chovanec behaves like a populist who persuades his voters about risks that are in fact unfounded, and offers solutions that are unfounded as well, Tresnak writes.
Chovanec’s other proposal, a package of changes to the foreigner law, is even worse. It has been submitted by MP Vaclav Klucka, who, nevertheless, said it was completed by the Interior Ministry’s lawyers under the aegis of Chovanec. By having the bill submitted by a lawmaker, Chovanec avoids the cabinet’s debate on it, its assessment by individual ministries and the need to submit arguments in its support, Tresnak writes.
Chovanec’s move is not surprising. The package crucially restricts the rights of foreigners in the Czech Republic, Tresnak writes.
The organisations working with migrants even say the changes violate both Czech and European laws. They enable to extend the detention of asylum seekers in detention centres to one year, compared with the present six months. They ban foreigners from appealing the Interior Ministry’s decisions and strip them of the chance to apply for a temporary stay for their family members, Tresnak writes.
According to the proposal, foreigners may lose the residence permit if their employer owes money to Czech authorities. Another provision bans foreigners from running business for the first five years in the Czech Republic, Tresnak writes.
The principle behind this bill is the same as with the arms possession proposal. The Czech Republic faces no serious problem with migration that would necessitate tough measures. Chovanec’s proposals only “comply with” people’s fears, which, however, Chovanec is helping to stir, Tresnak writes.
The bill, if passed, might even harm the Czechs’ co-existence with foreigners. Why, for example, should they be allowed to launch business after five years only in a situation where the best integrated foreign minority, the Vietnamese, achieved success as small traders in the past decades? Tresnak asks.
Let’s hope that the Chamber of Deputies will sweep Chovanec’s proposals from the table. Nevertheless, Chovanec’s star will continue shining. At the CSSD congress next weekend, he will seek re-election as the first deputy head, the party’s number two man after chairman and Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. If the CSSD loses the October general election to Finance Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO, which is a clear favourite, Chovanec may be expected to further rise as a politician, Tresnak writes.
It is good to know that Chovanec is a man who does not hesitate to feed ugly demons in people for the benefit of his own career, Tresnak concludes.
rtj/t/ms
