Mr. Chairman of the KSČM, you pushed through your proposal to transfer ten billion from the army budget to the government’s budget reserve and supported the entire budget. Is it the victory of a minority government that would have to go to a makeshift without you, or is it another example of who rules this country, as the opposition claims?
It is, in any case, a victory of reason, because there will be no provisional budget. And it is a budget with a strengthened reserve for the government that can respond to any crisis in a pandemic.
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It was not unnecessary, because even when you raised your hand, the government knew, and also immediately announced, that it would pour back the missing money into the army budget. Don’t you take it as a trip to you?
They can try the trick, but the budgetary measure is made through the House Budget Committee.
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So wouldn’t your members of this committee support the move?
This question is out of place. We have admitted that if the military uses the money to solve a pandemic crisis, it can return to the defense budget.
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And do you promise that the ten billion will be used by the military for this purpose? That she wouldn’t buy new foreign equipment for it, as she had planned?
We didn’t discuss that. We have discussed the need to increase the government’s budget reserve so that we can respond to the crisis at all without having to change the state budget twice, as was the case this year. We already know that we will change it one day, because of the tax package.
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I note that we are not fighting fanatically against purchases. We are aware that they need to be done, but we have a different opinion when it comes to buying helicopters, howitzers and what the share of Czech industry should be in buying for the army. And we want what we buy to be serviced in the Czech Republic.
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But the military and the government seem to disagree.
Postponing the purchase creates another benefit for the government. It would be foolish to want to trip to the KSČM and immediately return it to the army budget and declare it in the budget committee with someone else, and would not take the opportunity to increase the share of Czech companies in the supply and servicing of military equipment.
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It is not possible for the Ministry of Defense to ignore contracts for its businesses. The fact that they are in the red shows that the ministry is unable to manage them. And I repeat, if they want to do it as a pure trip to the KSČM, then we have the only insurance, and that is the budget committee.
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It is possible that another wave of the epidemic will come. Will you remind the government, which will need more money to compensate and support the people affected by the pandemic, how it resisted your proposal to strengthen funding to fight the covid?
Will you support the government in a state of emergency in return on Tuesday?
That is a premature question. We supported the emergency situation when necessary. And if necessary even now, we will consider the government’s request.
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And would you nod for a full thirty days a month until January 22, as the government wants?
This is possible because the situation is getting worse. And we don’t know what the home environment most people take during the holidays will do with the number of people infected. If it will be a sufficient filter so that the numbers do not deteriorate further.
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