Usti nad Labem, North Bohemia, Dec 9 (CTK) – The right-wing opposition party TOP 09 and especially its new leader Miroslav Kalousek paralyse Czech parliament with their obstructions and they are the biggest saboteurs of parliamentary democracy in the country, President Milos Zeman said yesterday.
In reaction, Kalousek said Zeman was either mistaken or he had bad information.
“We don´t paralyse anything. We decided to block one bill that is extremely dangerous for democracy,” Kalousek said.
Last week, TOP 09 and the opposition right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS) did not let the Chamber of Deputies open a debate on the introduction of the electronic registration of sales. Especially Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) is trying to push this bill through parliament. The Chamber will resume the debate on the bill on Friday and the ODS and TOP 09 are expected to filibuster again.
Kalousek said other bills failed in parliament due to the incapability of the government coalition of the Social Democrats (CSSD), ANO and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
Zeman said TOP 09 declared itself to be the advocate of parliamentary democracy, although nobody in the country challenged the essence of parliamentary democracy.
TOP 09 previously said Babis and Zeman posed a threat to democracy in the country. It blames the billionaire Babis for merging his business and political interests and Zeman for his affiliation to Russia and anti-refugee rhetorics, among others.
Kalousek replaced 78-year-old Karel Schwarzenberg in the post of TOP 09 chairman two weeks ago. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) then called on TOP 09 to seek arguments rather than obstructions in parliament.
Three representatives of Louny, north Bohemia, elected for TOP 09 refused to take part in the welcoming ceremony during Zeman´s visit to the town yesterday. They said the president´s stances divided society and supported radical and far-right tendencies.
Zeman dismissed this. “If I really divided society, the welcoming in the Usti Region would not have been so friendly,” he said.
kva/dr/rtj
