> President-elect Petr Pavel, February 23, 2023.
Prague – President of the ANO Parliamentary Club Alena Schillerová wants to convince President-elect Petr Pavel, among other things, with economic evidence that the government's pension amendment is incorrect . The opposition movement also criticizes the way it is discussed in a state of legislative emergency. Schillerová said this when she arrived at the Hrzánské Palace for today's meeting with Pavel, which will also be attended by the first vice-chairman of ANO Karel Havlíček.
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Photogallery: President-elect Petr Pavel
The House of Representatives will meet on Tuesday, February 28, regarding the controversial government proposal to reduce the June valorization of pensions. ANO and other SPD opposition movements have already announced obstructions. In addition to the proposal itself, they also question the state of legislative emergency, which was declared by the head of the lower chamber, Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09), at the request of the government, and which is supposed to enable faster approval. If the law is adopted, the opposition legislators are talking about challenging it at the Constitutional Court. The Cabinet justified the request to declare a state of legislative emergency by the threat of significant economic damage.
Today, Schillerová wants to convince Pavel of the inappropriateness of the proposal with “substantial arguments”. She wants to draw from the fiscal outlook of the Ministry of Finance or from the documents of the National Budget Council, according to which, according to the former head of the state treasury, it was clear in advance that pensions will increase by at least 20 billion crowns. According to her, however, the government did not consider this in the budget.
According to Havlíček, the valorization of pensions will be the main topic of the meeting. He does not know whether he will get to other issues, for example the possible increase in the tax burden of self-employed persons or climate and energy issues. According to him, the government's proposal for a reduced valuation of pensions is antisocial and unfair. According to him, approval of the amendment in a state of legislative emergency is at least on the verge. “The state of legislative emergency, when we look at everything that must be met, certainly does not take into account the fact that someone is irresponsible in budgeting,” he said.
So far, Pavel has dealt mainly with government ministers Spolu (ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09) and Pirátů with STAN, this week with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL). He said on Wednesday that Pavel had heard all the arguments for reducing the valuation of pensions. According to the Lidovec chairman, the new president asked about all the pitfalls, including the discussion of changes in the state of legislative emergency, and he is very well acquainted with the topic of pensions. Jureček did not want to comment on Pavlov's positions.
Survey: Seven out of ten Babiš voters do not believe that Pavel will represent their interests
Seven out of ten voters of Andrej Babiš think that incoming president Petr Pavel will not represent their interests. Every tenth Babiš voter has the opposite opinion, a fifth do not know. This follows from a current survey by the NMS Market Research agency. In January, the former high representative of the Czech army and NATO, Pavel, won the elections for the head of state, defeating the head of the ANO movement and former prime minister Babiš in the second round.
According to its authors, the results of the survey testify to the division of society, which is also evident in the reasons that the respondents decided on their choice. Among the voters of Petr Pavel, the most frequently mentioned reason was voting against Babiš, which was mentioned by 38 percent of them in the open question. Sixteen percent of Pavel's voters chose the general in reserve because of his demeanor, while 13 percent mentioned honesty, dignity or decency. Among the less frequent reasons for choosing Pavel were representativeness, sympathy, personality or opinions or attitudes.
The most common reason he made a decision among Babiš's voters was his experience. This reason was given by 22 percent of respondents who voted for the ex-prime minister. Eighteen percent of Babiš's voters gave the reason for voting against Pavlov, and 14 percent answered that he helps people.
Less frequent reasons for choosing Babiš include that respondents know what to expect from him, that he is a lesser evil or that he does not support government coalition. “According to the available data, Babiš failed to convince the public that Pavel is equal to Fial's government. The reason for choosing Babiš, that he does not support the government coalition, was stated by only five percent of the respondents,” said research co-author Michael Bouška.
Based on research after the presidential elections, the NMS Market Research agency also processed the overflow of voters between the first and second rounds. The data show that Pavel won the overwhelming majority of voters Danuš Nerudová and Pavel Fischer. For this, he won the majority of the voters of Marko Hilšer, Karel Diviš and some of the non-voters. Similarly, Babiš won a large part of non-voters. Jaroslav Bašta's voters more or less divided into two camps – roughly half voted for Babiš instead of Bašta in the second round, the rest, with some exceptions, did not go to the polls in the second round.
The majority of voters – 64 percent – knew who they were going to vote for, before the first round. Another 22 percent of respondents made their decision immediately after the first round results were published. Four percent of respondents made their decisions based on the candidates' performance in televised debates, five percent only on election day.
In February, 1,287 respondents aged 18 and over participated in the NMS Market Research survey.
Pavel will assume the presidency on March 9. After his election, he repeatedly emphasized that, as head of the state, he wanted to listen to and help his non-voters and opponents.
