Issued on: 11/10/2021 – 14:08Modified: 11/10/2021 – 14:06
Prague (AFP)
Czech politics was thrown into uncertainty Monday with the president spending a second day in intensive care and his chief ally, the outgoing billionaire prime minister, defeated in a general election.
Andrej Babis’s populist ANO (YES) party narrowly lost at weekend to a three-party centre-right alliance called Together and led by right-winger Petr Fiala.
Babis’ defeat came as he faces charges over EU subsidy fraud and after the Pandora Papers investigation this month showed he had used money from his offshore firms to purchase overseas property, including a chateau on the French Riviera.
President Milos Zeman needs to convene parliament within 30 days of the election and name the next prime minister under the Czech constitution, besides mediating talks on the new government.
On Sunday, he had a brief meeting with Babis, but was then rushed to Prague’s military hospital from his residence. Local media say that he is suffering from liver problems.
Zeman’s doctor told reporters the president was in intensive care. Local media reported that he was in a stable condition.
The Pandora Papers investigation undermined Czech PM Andrej Babis (R) in the final stretch of the election campaignJOE KLAMAR AFP/File
Images of the 77-year-old head of state being taken out of an ambulance with his head supported have cast doubt on his ability to lead talks on forming the next government.
“Tell us what is going on with Zeman!” shrieked a headline on the website of the Blesk tabloid. The hospital and Zeman’s spokesman stayed silent Monday.
– Fiala ‘must act fast’ –
“I would be happy with basic information,” independent political analyst Jan Kubacek told AFP.
“If they say he’ll stay for weeks, we will roughly know what is happening and the situation will calm down.”
Fiala’s Together won 108 seats in the 200-seat parliament together with an alliance of the liberal Pirates and the centrist Mayors and Independents, which looks set to oust Babis from power.
But Zeman said earlier he would tap the leader of a party, not an alliance, to form the next government, suggesting his old political ally Babis would go first.
The incoming Czech parliament, according to election results from the Czech Statistical Office. AFP
An EU and NATO member of 10.7 million people, the ex-communist Czech Republic has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Its economy largely depends on car production and exports to the eurozone, which it has yet to join.
Babis, a food, chemicals and media mogul, is facing EU anger over his conflict of interest as a politician and entrepreneur, as well as charges over EU subsidy fraud.
“If Fiala wants to be perceived as the prime minister by the broad public, he has to start acting like a prime minister,” said Kubacek.
“He must act fast, build the government team and draft the policy statement. The more ready he will be when he meets the president, the more likely he is to succeed,” the analyst said.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
