President Miloš Zeman considers the proposed form of a European border guard nothing but a caricature of such a guard and he told Parlamentní listy that it would be better if NATO protected the borders from a possible influx of migrants.
Prague, Jan 21 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman considers the proposed form of a European border guard nothing but a caricature of such a guard and he told Parlamentni listy that it would be better if NATO protected the borders from a possible influx of migrants.
He said he presupposes that the military will have to protect the Czech border soon.
The Czech government supports the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to tighten the protection of the borders, which includes the deployment of minimally 1500 members of a newly formed border guard.
Zeman is for a different solution. “I am for that a joint NATO command that would guard the EU borders should exist in other countries similarly like in Afghanistan,” Zeman said.
“What is being proposed now or a guard with 1500 men, is a caricature of a border guard. It would be meaningful only if we concluded that the armed forces of the NATO member countries only have 1500 men,” Zeman said.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) recently spoke about the need to have a coast and border guard. On Tuesday, he also spoke about the establishing of a “reserve border system” along the Bulgaria-Macedonia line unless the outer protection of the Schengen space is reinforced.
Deputy Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO), for his part, rather supports the NATO alternative.
Zeman also came out for a radical restriction of the number of migrants coming to the Czech Republic.
“I would not dramatise the accepting of three Syrian families with ill children. I would not dramatise the accepting of a few dozen Iraqi Christians who are persecuted by Muslims at home. But I clearly say:This is enough. This is all,” he said.
Zeman said he expects the military will soon have to join the Czech border protection “at the moment the flood wave starts to spill over from Austria to this country.”
But he said he is against any “referendum on migrants.”
“Migrants should be returned from our border without any referendum because according to the Dublin agreements, a migrant is to apply for asylum in the first secure country, and this is not the Czech Republic,” Zeman said.
ms/dr
