“As part of the coalition meeting, it was agreed – and I have this indirectly, I was not present – that the candidate of the STAN movement would propose the position,” said Jan Farský, vice-chairman of STAN, in the PoliTalk Novinek podcast in connection with the post of European Commissioner. Other representatives of the movement speak similarly.
There is supposed to be an informal agreement in the government coalition of five that the former coalition of STAN and the Pirates, which broke up after the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, will nominate the European Commissioner.
STAN representatives claim that both parties have agreed that the place belongs to the mayors. This is explained, for example, by the number of ministries – while the STAN movement has the second largest government club in the House of Representatives with 33 MPs, it received four ministries. The pirates have three departments with only four MPs.
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STAN is counting on the place and even has several names that could fill it. One of them is Farský, but the Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela is also in the game, as Farský also confirmed in the interview.
He also mentioned the current Minister for European Affairs, Mikuláš Bek. On Thursday, however, it became clear that Bek should head to the Ministry of Education instead of Vladimír Balaš, who wants to quit for health reasons.
Pirates: There is no agreement, we also want a place
However, the Pirates claim that there is no deal. “I don’t know about any such agreement. At the same time, I must say that there is absolutely no mandate for anyone in the Pirate Party who should negotiate something like this with STAN,” first vice-chairman of the Pirates and MEP Marcel Kolaja pointed out to Nauzal.
“I find the statement from a colleague from STAN to be frivolous. Because there is an agreement in the entire coalition that Pirates and Mayors will nominate for the post of commissioner,” he emphasized.
He himself is thinking about the position of European Commissioner. “I would be interested,” he confirmed to Novinkám.
“However, we are a party with a very strong internal democracy. This means that we would have a transparent selection, where the candidates would de facto go through the primary elections. I haven’t seen anyone else up for the post yet, but that doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t applied,” he noted.
Pirates boss Ivan Bartoš is vague about the deal. “According to the agreement, the nomination goes to the coalition of Pirates and Mayors. Everything else is the subject of an intra-coalition agreement,” he told Novinka only.
“Let both sides come up with the nomination”
At the same time, Kolaja suggests that both parties come up with a candidate and leave the final selection to the new leadership of the European Commission.
“We should focus on ensuring that the Czech Republic has the best possible portfolio. It would be beneficial in all respects if the Pirates made one nomination and the Mayors the other. And then the Czech government could present two nominations to the newly elected President of the European Commission, who will form the collegium. And as part of the portfolio negotiations, a decision would be made as to which of the two nominations would be the commissioner,” he suggests.
Věra Jourová, who was nominated by the ANO movement, is the Czech European Commissioner for the second term. The new Commission must be established within six months of the elections to the European Parliament, which will be held in May next year.
Recently, however, in connection with the European Commissioner’s mandate, there has been talk, for example, about the unsuccessful presidential candidate and former rector Danuša Nerudová. She did not rule out candidacy in the European elections. According to Novinek, he is in talks with several parties about her, including STAN and the Pirates.
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