Czech PM Andrej Babiš sees no reason to extend the State of Emergency, which expires on April 30.
The government will discuss it further on Thursday. According to Babiš, the whole ANO party will vote unanimously against the extension.
However, ČSSD chairman and the head of the country’s Central Crisis Staff, has repeatedly stated that an “extension of the State of Emergency would be necessary.”
“If the Prime Minister does not want to extend the State of Emergency, then it makes no sense to ask the government. I will order the Ministry of Internal Affairs to prepare the documents to stop the centralized distribution of protective equipment by April 30,” wrote Hamáček on Twitter.
“>Můj dopis panu premiérovi, v němž vysvětluji důvody pro pokračování nouzového stavu: pic.twitter.com/jCNvzj1Fkl
— Jan Hamáček (@jhamacek) April 21, 2020
Hamáček warned that it would no longer be possible, for instance, to purchase protective equipment centrally or to control the regime at the country’s borders.
Minister of Labor Jana Maláčová (ČSSD) is also skeptical about the consequences of the end of the State of Emergency on April 30. “If this happens, I want to know how to protect the elderly after the emergency, how we will help Czech companies, families and individuals to overcome this crisis. The emergency can be “canceled”, but it will not eliminate the real need of people,” she said to Novinky.cz
In the morning, the members of TOP 09 confirmed that they would not support further emergency extension.
The termination of the State of Emergency mode does not mean the automatic cancellation of restrictive measures.
The main point is that the Czech government will no longer be able to quickly and easily introduce new restrictions and adopt laws in a simplified manner.
The state of emergency was declared by the government effective 12 March 14:00 and was due to expire on Saturday 11 April; the government requested deputies to extend it until the end of the month.
