The state of emergency has been extended until Sunday, May 17th, and with it the main government restrictions against the spread of the novel coronavirus. On Tuesday, the Czech Parliament agreed to extend the state of emergency that was due to end on April 30th, adopting a proposal from Communist Party (KSČM) deputies, who support the ANO Movement and Social Democracy (ČSSD) minority government in the Lower House. Photo: Freepik / For illustrative purposes.
Czech Rep., Apr 29 (BD) – The government wanted the state of emergency to continue until May 25th, following their plans to gradually relax restrictions on trade and services in particular.
Most of the opposition only supported an extension of the state of emergency until early May. Opposition deputies accused Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s cabinet of acting both illegally and chaotically, first with the regulations they imposed and now with the gradual easing of restrictions.
According to Babiš, Health Minister Adam Vojtěch (ANO) will propose an amendment to the Public Health Protection Act at Monday’s government meeting, which will enable restrictive measures to be kept in place on the basis of a decision from the Health Ministry, even without an active state of emergency. The aim is to maintain the government’s schedule for relaxing the current restrictions.
The state of emergency has been in force in the Czech Republic since March 12th. According to Czech law, the government can declare a state of emergency for a maximum of 30 days. The Parliament had already extended the state of emergency once, until the end of April.