Illustrative photo – Regular meeting of the Chamber of Deputies, February 21, 2023, Prague. President of the ANO club Alena Schillerová speaking.
Prague – The opposition ANO hopes that the Senate, as a safeguard for democracy, will not approve the government's amendment to lower pension growth, which the movement has described as shameful. Otherwise, they will turn to the incoming president, Petr Pavel, with a request that he not sign the amendment and, if necessary, veto it. ANO representatives said this today at a press conference after the adoption of the amendment by the House of Representatives.
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“We will continue to fight so that our pensioners do not lose money,” said ANO chairman Andrej Babiš. “Strength won, arrogance won and incompetence won,” ANO vice-chairman Karel Havlíček said of the decision of the House of Representatives. He again criticized the government for not allocating money for the valorization of pensions in this year's budget. According to the government, limiting the increase in pensions during the June valuation is necessary to stabilize public finances. The state will save 19.4 billion crowns this year alone.
The chairwoman of ANO deputies, Alena Schillerová, called on the Senate not to support the amendment, which she described as shameful. “We call on the Senate: Be a real guarantee of democracy. Fulfill the meaning and purpose that the Senate, as the second chamber of the parliament, should have,” said Schillerová. Some senators from the government group, for example Michael Canov (SLK), have already expressed criticism of the amendment in the past. But Babiš thinks that the Senate will approve the amendment on March 8. “I assume that the Senate, which is part of the new totality, will overturn it,” said the YES chairman.
Schiller said that not only the opposition minority in the House was defeated, but also the government majority, by trampling all democratic principles and rights of the opposition and opposed 2.8 million pensioners. Like Babiš, she stated that YES she will ask Pavel to accept her and Havlíček. They want to explain to the new president why the amendment should be rejected
According to Schiller, the five-day obstructions were not unnecessary, even though considering the coalition majority in the lower parliamentary chamber, it was clear that the amendment would be accepted. According to Babiš, it turned out that the KDU-ČSL, like the ODS, is a right-wing asocial party that does not like pensioners. Babiš also pointed out that Prime Minister and ODS chairman Petr Fiala never spoke in the debates.
