Czech communists return to government as potential brokers | News from the world

Czech communists are enjoying their first boost to power for nearly 30 years. Their support for a parliamentary vote of confidence paved the way for a government headed by Andrej Babiš, a billionaire tycoon corrupted by the scandal. The 15 deputies of the Communist Party of Bohemia-Moravia (KSCM) provided the necessary votes to allow a pact formed between the movement Babiš Action of Unsatisfied Citizens (ANO) and the Social Democrats (ČSSD) to survive First test, ending at almost nine months of political stalemate that saw the Czech Republic governed by temporary administrations.

The vote – shortly after 1 am Thursday – followed a marathon debate of more than 12 hours to the idea that a government relies on the support of the communists and questions the truth. Babiš's ability to govern in the face of criminal charges against him.

Demonstrations took place outside Parliament and a Conservative opposition party, Top 09, staged a symbolic strike. In the end, 105 deputies from the 200-member chamber voted for the new government. One of the leading social democrats, Milan Chovanec, a former interior minister, refused to give support, citing his conscience.

The support appeared after the Communists had signed an agreement with the ANO agreeing to "tolerate" the new government – dominant ideological fears over Babiš's wealthy status in exchange for the government. and political promises and influential roles in public services.

Although the party remains formally outside the coalition, the agreement marks a return to influence and responsibility for the first time since the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ended the reign 41-year-old communists from the former Czechoslovakia. A Conservative opposition party, Top 09, came out in protest before Wednesday's vote, while members of the right-wing Christian Democrat party displayed a banner sporting a Soviet red star in a dazzling sign of protest. a lasting anti-communist feeling in the country

Demonstrations were held in Prague and in other cities against the rehabilitation of a party that still remembers bitterly of its totalitarian methods "For many people who support the center-right parties, it is a big moral and psychological problem, because they see it in symbolic terms and think that it is not correct, "Jiří said. Pehe, campus director of the New York University in Prague and Czech political badyst.

Babiš, who was sworn in for the second time last month, ignored this reluctance after more moderate parties refused to serve under him. criminal fraud charges for allegations that he falsely obtained nearly 2 million euros in EU funds for his giant agrochemical business ten years ago. He denies the accusations, which he described as politically motivated.

Babiš, the second richest man in the Czech Republic, was also marked by a communist past after being appointed a secret police agent when he was working for a Czechoslovakian trading company. , an accusation he contests.

He gained communist support for his coalition by agreeing to tax church property that had been returned to him after being seized while the party was in power. However, he resisted their requests to dilute the Czech Republic's commitments to NATO, rejecting his request to reduce troop deployments in the Baltic Republics and Afghanistan.

The former interim administration of Babiš also angered the communists. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expelled three Moscow diplomats in solidarity with Britain for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury

"Babiš did all because it does not have democratic legitimacy and is suspected of not being a true liberal democrat, "Pehe said. "He wants to be pro-Western, pro-NATO and pro-EU – and he made clear to the Communists that he was not going to compromise on it."

But his government is certain to maintain an uncompromising anti-migrant Miloš Zeman, the populist Czech president, has refused to accept the Social Democrat candidate for the post of Foreign Minister Miroslav MEP Pocket, on the grounds that he was too liberal in matters of immigration.