‘Clumsy’

Noted for his low profile through the crisis to that point, Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar — a former member of a radical pro-Russian group — proposed in the report that the prime minister should take over full control of the country should parliament and the government be indisposed.

“It caught our attention because of the events in Hungary, which have emotions running high,” Vojtech Pikal, a Pirate Party deputy chairman of the Chamber of Deputies lower house of parliament, told BIRN.

“It’s a legitimate concern because we have no mechanism to fall back on if parliament cannot be convened. But we don’t agree it can be simply bypassed.”

With Metnar’s report submitted to the government on the same day as Orban’s power grab, some opposition parties recoiled at the defence minister’s sudden emergence from the shadows.

“Did you think that the minister of defence has been coordinating the army to assist during the corona crisis?“ tweeted Vit Rakusan, head of the centre-right Stan party. “No, apparently he was on a study trip in Hungary. We will not cut democracy. We still have a Senate [upper house] to stop this madness.”

Miroslav Kalousek, a divisive former finance minister who chairs the conservative Top 09 party, even suggested on Twitter that if the government tried to implement the proposals the population would have the right to take up arms.

Kdyby tohle chtěla vážně vláda prosadit, tak to je přesně ten okamžik, kdy v souladu s Ústavou mají občané právo postavit se na ozbrojený odpor. Pokud to vláda prosadit nechce, ať premiér okamžitě odvolá ministra Metnara. https://t.co/5cQCOAVlhx — Miroslav Kalousek (@kalousekm) March 30, 2020

Babis was quick to deny any knowledge of the report. “I totally disagree with this,” the prime minister tweeted. “I stopped it and we will not discuss it.”

Absolutně s tím nesouhlasím, zastavil jsem to a projednávat to SAMOZŘEJMĚ nebudeme. Nevím, proč teď @ObranaTweetuje vytáhlo dokument, který jim zadala vláda už v roce 2015. Tohle se kolegům fakt nepovedlo. https://t.co/JCwidilyno — Andrej Babiš (@AndrejBabis) March 31, 2020

However, local media dug up a document showing that the prime minister chaired a meeting in early March at which Metnar was instructed to present the report. Babis’s signature adorns the minutes.

Metnar jumped to tell the press that he had made a clumsy attempt to start plugging a constitutional hole that had been on the agenda for 15 years.

“We do not want to weaken parliament,” the defence minister said in a statement. “We want to discuss everything across the political parties, which is clearly stated in the document. The timing of the current emergency is accidental and unfortunate.”

Neither Pirate Party lawmaker Pikal nor Ondrej Kundra, deputy editor-in-chief of liberal Respekt weekly magazine (who was part of the team that revealed Babis’s participation), believe this was an actual power grab.

“Maybe it was a trial balloon,” Kundra said. “Maybe just bad timing.”

However, Pikal noted that even if the government is given the benefit of the doubt, the episode still exposes worrying issues.

“It suggests the minister of defence is politically inept, and the PM doesn’t know what he’s signing,” he said.