MEPs of the Czech governmental party ANO supported the recommendation that the European Commission should launch proceedings against Hungary. According to Vondráček, this is an unnecessary “deepening of ditches” at a time when Europe needs “respect, trust and dialogue”.
SPD chairman Tomio Okamura called ANO MEPs vote as a fatal failure. Jan Skopeček (ODS) then called the vote of Czech MEPs against Hungary, the Czech ally, as scandalous.
Chairman of ODS deputies Zbyněk Stanjura pointed out that the procedure is not about Orban but it is conducted with sovereign democratic Hungary. “The proceeding with Hungary is not in the interest of the Czech Republic,“ he said. According to Jiří Kozba (SPD), it is probably a matter of making Hungary a deterrent example, and if the pressure works, it will be a question of who is next?
Representatives of the Pirate Party were fascinated by the compactness of SPD and ODS, and along with representatives of the movement STAN, they opposed them.
However, chairman of the People´s Party deputies Jan Bartošek considers the punishing of Hungary extremely unfortunate. On the other hand, he added that there is no better project in the world than being a part of the EU.
Apart from ANO MEPs and Polčák, also TOP 09 MEPs and Miroslav Poche (ČSSD) supported sanction proceedings. MEPs from KDU-CSL, ODS, Free citizens´ Party and KSČM and also Jan Keller from ČSSD voted against the proceedings. Pavel Poc (ČSSD) abstained and his party colleague Olga Sehnalová did not attend the voting session.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) considers the vote useless when representatives of the member states are those who will have the last call. He will discuss the situation with ANO MEPs. Europe should not be divided, according to him, the problems of the EU are different, for instance Brexit should be addressed.
