Czech lawmakers’ debate on EU migration gets heated, draws attention of Commissioner

7 months ago 28

A debate on the EU’s Migration Pact in the Czech parliament on Thursday caught the eye of EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson and turned heated as MPs argued over the reception of refugees in the Czech Republic.

The parliamentary debate on the new migration rules adopted by the European Parliament last week was initiated by opposition party ANO (Renew). The party strongly disagrees with the migration pact and accuses the current Czech government of betrayal, especially for allegedly agreeing to the forced relocation of refugees.

The leader of ANO himself, former prime minister Andrej Babiš, called the EU’s pact the biggest betrayal in the modern history of the Czech Republic, committed by Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) and Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (STAN).

It is ‘not a cure but a poison’ that serves to “assist the suicide of Europe and its culture”, he said about the pact, adding that while it is too late to save Western Europe, it is still possible to avert the situation in the Czech Republic and in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

“We still have time and opportunity to fight illegal migration. The first step is to reject the progressivist welcomers, eco-fanatics and social engineers who want to forcibly improve, in quotation marks, our world,” the ANO leader added.

Babiš has long used the issue of migration in his populist rhetoric, particularly to attack the EU, but appears to be using increasingly outrageous rhetoric as the EU elections draw closer.

In his view, rejecting migrants from different cultural backgrounds is not a manifestation of a lack of solidarity but of an instinct for self-preservation. “This must be clear to anyone who sees what is happening in Western European cities,” Babiš said.

The Czech government decided to abstain in the latest Council vote on the migration pact and does not plan to block it in the final formal vote on 29 April.

“There is no way to override a state and order it to accept someone as part of relocation. This is simply not there,” Rakušan said during Thursday’s debate.

Rakušan argues that Czechia is not obligated to accept refugees because it can participate in solidarity mechanisms in other ways. Rakušan also says Czechia will be exempt from the mechanism because it has hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine on its territory.

Intervention from Brussels

The debate even had EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson commenting on the debate and posting about it on social media before it began.

“Ahead of today’s debate in Czech Parliament on #migrationEU, let’s be clear: The rules agreed in the Pact on Migration and Asylum do not call for mandatory relocation, even in a crisis. What is required is mandatory solidarity—financially or operationally,” Commissioner Johansson wrote on X a few hours before the start of the parliamentary debate.

“Member states have flexibility. A country like the Czech Republic, which already showed solidarity by hosting large numbers of Ukrainians, will be able to be exempted from any mandatory solidarity contributions,” she added.

Rakušan and other government coalition members, including Fiala (ODS, ECR), shared Johansson’s tweet as proof of their claims, but the opposition was critical ofher intervention in Czech affairs.

“Let’s be clear. It’s totally unacceptable for the EU Commissioner to comment and get involved in the Parliamentary debate in any member state,” ANO party member Jaroslav Bžoch reacted on X.

(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)