Prague, Jan 26 (CTK) – The Czech Republic might be the only civilised country in which the president calls for killing the prime minister, PM Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) said yesterday, calling President Milos Zeman’s statements about the Kalashnikov assault rifle silly and useless.
Sobotka commented on Zeman’s words about the use of Kalashnikov being a non-democratic way to get rid of him.
Sobotka said Zeman’s words scared his children and family.
Presidential Office spokesman Jiri Ovcacek said Zeman’s statement was a hyperbole and that he had not called for killing anyone.
Zdenek Sarapatka, a former CSSD senior official and a member of Zeman’s staff when he was the prime minister (1998-2002), has filed a criminal complaint about Zeman over the statement.
“If a president calls for the use of a gun against the prime minister, he has no place in the post head of state,” Sarapatka has said.
However, the constitution says that the president is not accountable for the execution of the post.
At a meeting with the public in Tisnov, south Moravia, on Monday, a student asked Zeman how to achieve the dismissal of the prime minister. He answered that there are two ways for people to unseat a politician – a democratic one, which is the participation in elections, and an undemocratic one, which is a Kalashnikov.
“We are most probably the only country in the civilised world in which the president calls for killing the head of government. I will cope with it, but I mind Zeman scaring my children, the whole family and my friends,” Sobotka said.
“I consider these statements by the president silly and useless and I will not react to them on this completely inappropriate level. I insist on relations between the prime minister and the president being professional and I will keep approaching them this way in the interest of a good functioning of the state,” he added.
Relations between Zeman and Sobotka have long been tense.
Zeman’s words about the Kalashnikov rifle have been criticised by both government and opposition politicians.
Article 65 of the constitution says the head of state can be prosecuted over treason or a gross violation of the constitution or a different part of the constitutional order.
In such a case, the constitutional complaint is submitted by the Senate and is dealt with by the Constitutional Court.
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