What the Czech Republic is writing about: Babiš backs down, Pavel to attend NATO summit. Motorists fall below five percent

After half a year of institutional dispute, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš backed down, and the Czech delegation to next year's NATO summit in Tirana, Albania, will ultimately be led by President Petr Pavel. According to several media outlets, Babiš himself does not plan to attend the summit. Tensions between Prague Castle and the government manifested themselves in another way that same day: Foreign Minister and Motorists leader Petr Macinka declined an invitation to Monday's meeting between Pavel and Babiš after agreeing it with the prime minister, while Sunday’s televised debate also saw MPs argue over a law intended to restrict the president's powers when appointing envoys to international organisations. A new STEM poll also showed that ANO is still winning the election but losing support; according to the poll, the coalition party Motoristé sobě would fail to enter the Chamber of Deputies, while the government is also preparing possible electricity price caps and a return of the waiting period. Several things have happened since then: Monday's meeting between Pavel and Babiš at Prague Castle will take place despite the dispute, the opposition is considering a no-confidence vote over the budget deficit, and ANO has withdrawn from three Senate constituencies without a contest.

The six-month war over the NATO summit is over: Babiš backs down

The dispute over who will represent the Czech Republic at NATO summits dates back to March, when Babiš wanted to travel to the meeting at the time on his own instead of with the president. It escalated in the summer during the summit itself in Ankara, Turkey, after which the prime minister declared that he would “never again be in a delegation with the president.” On Sunday, Babiš confirmed according to Czech Television that next year's summit in Tirana, Albania, would be led by President Pavel alone. ČT24 ↗

Several other newsrooms confirmed the same report during the evening — Forum24 described it explicitly as a retreat after the earlier disputes, Forum24 ↗ iROZHLAS quoted the prime minister directly iROZHLAS ↗ and SeznamZprávy stressed that Babiš had ruled out his own participation altogether. SeznamZprávy ↗

Tensions between Prague Castle and the government that day were not limited to NATO. Petr Macinka initially received an invitation to Monday's meeting between Pavel and Babiš, Aktuálně.cz ↗ which, according to Ekonomický deník, was intended to “break the tension” between the president and the government. Ekonomický deník ↗ After reaching an agreement with the prime minister, he ultimately decided not to come to Prague Castle; he is due to meet Pavel at another time and elsewhere. Aktuálně.cz ↗ Monday's meeting between Pavel and Babiš, to which Macinka had originally been invited, will ultimately take place according to iDNES.cz — they will discuss foreign policy ahead of the upcoming UN General Assembly. iDNES.cz ↗

The law on presidential powers also divided Sunday's debate

The same dispute also concerns a proposed law intended to restrict the president's powers when appointing envoys to international organisations. In Czech Television's Sunday debate, Jiří Pospíšil (TOP 09) called it a deliberate dispute that “had never been contentious under any previous government” and would end up before the Constitutional Court, while Svobodní chairman Libor Vondráček argued that it was merely a clarification of rules that would apply equally to every future government. ČT24 ↗

The same discussion also addressed Babiš's conflict of interest involving the Agrofert holding. While Pospíšil pointed out that it concerned tens of millions of crowns in taxpayers' money, Vondráček called the issue a “non-issue” according to iDNES.cz and claimed that the prime minister had done everything he could in his position. iDNES.cz ↗

STEM poll: ANO still leads, Motorists fall below five percent

According to the agency's September poll, ANO would comfortably win the election to the Chamber of Deputies with more than 31 percent, although its support had declined slightly from the previous measurement, Forum24 noted. Forum24 ↗ Motoristé sobě would not enter the Chamber at all according to iROZHLAS, while the Mayors made a surprising gain. iROZHLAS ↗ Ekonomický deník adds that other recent polls confirm the same trend: ANO is losing support, while STAN is gaining. Ekonomický deník ↗

The Motorists' fall below the electoral threshold complicated the arithmetic of a majority and also prompted talk of post-election cooperation in Prague. STAN chairman Vít Rakušan did not rule out cooperation with ANO according to Aktuálně.cz, but prefers the Spolu coalition. Aktuálně.cz ↗ ODS chairman Martin Kupka expressed himself similarly and, according to SeznamZprávy, also did not rule out cooperation with ANO in Prague. SeznamZprávy ↗ In the concurrent Senate elections on 17 October, ANO withdrew from three constituencies without a contest according to iROZHLAS, which could help candidates Kubo and Šmarda, but paradoxically also the Mayors. iROZHLAS ↗

State finances: electricity, the waiting period and more expensive mortgages

The government is ready to intervene in electricity prices if rising prices on the energy market continue, Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček confirmed on a Sunday programme, although he did not say at what level any price cap would be set. ihned.cz ↗

The government is also considering bringing back the waiting period, meaning three days of sick leave without sickness benefits, which Babiš's government abolished years ago. Labour Minister Aleš Juchelka also supported the Motorists' proposal. iDNES.cz ↗ Companies have long been calling for the introduction of a waiting period, according to Aktuálně.cz. Aktuálně.cz ↗ A SeznamZprávy commentator described pushing for the waiting period in a podcast as Juchelka's attempt to curry favour with the prime minister after, in the commentator's view, the same minister “destroyed” his own flexible amendment to the Labour Code. SeznamZprávy ↗

The Reflex commentator struck a more critical tone, noting that mortgages are at their most expensive in two years and that financial markets do not follow government statements. Reflex ↗ Prime Minister Babiš meanwhile also presented his own solution to the low birth rate — one million crowns for a second child and a lifetime tax allowance for a third, Deník reports. Deník ↗

Pirate chairman Zdeněk Hřib also took aim forcefully at the state budget debate, accusing Havlíček according to Fora24 of “cheating sick people” and saying he should “go down a sewer” — a political accusation made during the debate, not an established fact. Forum24 ↗

The budget dispute is also escalating outside the Chamber — according to info.cz, the opposition is considering a no-confidence vote over the budget deficit. info.cz ↗ Deník N also warns that the cost of servicing the national debt is rising sharply and catching up with Babiš in his own “interest-rate trap.” Deník N ↗

Babiš defended the proposed deficit of 389 billion crowns. He rejected the idea that this amounted to giveaways — “we will not hand out gifts, but invest in people,” he said. Lidovky ↗

Brussels suspends Agrofert subsidies; trust fund fails to convince

The European Commission confirmed that it had suspended reimbursement of part of the EU subsidies to companies in the Agrofert holding. The Directorate-General for Agriculture suspended for six months the deadline for payments declared in the second quarter amounting to 3,175,886.40 euros, or more than 77 million crowns. This follows from a letter sent by European Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin to Andreas Schwab, chairman of the European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee. Novinky ↗

The reason is the trust fund that was supposed to resolve Babiš's conflict of interest. The prime minister placed Agrofert in it in February, but the Commission does not consider it a sufficient solution: according to the Commission, Babiš's descendants are potential beneficiaries of the fund, the portfolio is well known to the prime minister, and he can exercise influence through a family council made up of beneficiaries. Seznam Zprávy ↗ Babiš maintains that he does not own Agrofert and said that the Commission's position does not concern him. Agrofert claims it acted in accordance with the law, while the opposition says the prime minister deceived both the president and the public. Deník ↗

Under the radar

Tejc's approach took concrete shape in the early evening. The government approved “criminal policy priorities” and instructed the minister to inform the Supreme State Prosecutor Lenka Bradáčová and, through her, the prosecutors. The focus is to be on violent and sexual crime, domestic violence and animal cruelty, while according to the minister, punishment for controversial speech should be used “very cautiously.” Tejc rejects the idea that this amounts to issuing instructions: “We cannot instruct state prosecutors or bind them as to how they should act in specific cases, but we can inform them of the goals of government policy in criminal law.” Novinky ↗

The army, not a private company, will ultimately remove the contaminated soil in Šumava. The government changed the plan under which the remediation was to be carried out by Dekonta, and Babiš announced the change by saying that he was looking forward to Minister Zůna's operation. Aktuálně.cz ↗ The Environment Ministry also says that the situation in the area is not currently an emergency — it is a contaminated site. iROZHLAS ↗

In an interview with iDNES.cz, Justice Minister Jeroným Tejc admitted that he simply did not understand some court rulings and spoke of the need to toughen sentences. iDNES.cz ↗

iROZHLAS noted that there are 490 sites in the Czech Republic requiring remediation — chemist Tomáš Cajthaml called this the legacy of a “chemical superpower,” referring to the Šumava tender case that we followed last week. iROZHLAS ↗

A Respekt commentator asked whether the government had “thrown away its compass” — an allusion to a series of disputes surrounding Prague Castle and the state budget. Respekt ↗

A SeznamZprávy commentary compared how Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk handled the weekend's Russian provocation aimed at Czech-Polish relations: while Babiš called the incident an invented media affair, Tusk recorded a video openly acknowledging its Russian origin. SeznamZprávy ↗

In Sweden, the morning picture changed — according to updated preliminary results, the opposition centre-left bloc has a narrow lead over the governing right-wing bloc, iROZHLAS reports. iROZHLAS ↗

According to Aktuálně.cz, Babiš is keeping his distance from his own European Commissioner Jozef Síkela when building alliances in Brussels and is instead relying on Hungarian and Slovak partners. Aktuálně.cz ↗

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