Prague, May 2 (CTK) – The Czech ANO movement of Finance Minister Andrej Babis would consider it ideal if only Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) left the government because he damages the good work of the other ministers, ANO deputy chairman Jaroslav Faltynek said yesterday.
At its meeting last night, ANO agreed that it is not going to leave the government.
The movement also wants Babis, whose disputes with Sobotka resulted in the prime minister’s decision to tender the whole government’s resignation this week, to keep his post.
“There is no reason why we should leave the government,” Babis said on public Czech Television (CT) last night.
He said this applies “at one thousand percent.”
Babis said he is not going to resign even though he did not originally rule out this possibility. But his colleagues persuaded him not to do so, he said.
He said he would not accept President Milos Zeman’s possible offer to form a new government.
The right to this rests with the CSSD, which won the early eleciton in 2013, Babis said.
Sobotka announced unexpectedly this afternoon that he will hand in the government’s resignation over Babis’s unclear property situation and transactions this week.
“My table is clean,” Babis said tonight.
Babis said Sobotka does not talk to him unlike other ministers, and if, then only formally.
“To form a caretaker government six months ahead of a general election is an utter nonsense. The prime minister only disgusts citizens because he arouses unrest,” Babis said on CT.
He said Sobotka, after he takes a rest, may change his mind by Friday.
Babis said Sobotka “is probably bored and invents various nonsenses.”
