Prague, May 10 (CTK) – The policy statement of the planned government of the ANO movement and the Social Democratic Party (CSSD) wants to introduce a pension reform and a new income tax law, reinforce security, reject refugee quotas and promote Czech interests in the European Union.
The digitisation of the state administration and a strategical investment programme are among the government priorities, according to the policy statement, the text of which is available to CTK.
The ANO and CSSD negotiators agreed on the policy statement of their coalition government on Wednesday. As they will officially present it to their parties on Friday, they have not commented on it yet. The current version of the policy statement need not be final.
ANO and CSSD leaders, Andrej Babis and Jan Hamacek, agreed on the coalition pact of their parties on Monday. As ANO and the CSSD do not hold a majority in parliament, they reached agreement with the Communist Party (KSCM) that it would tolerate the government and help it win the confidence vote in the lower house.
The government policy statement is based on the policy statement of the ANO minority cabinet headed by Babis which lost the confidence vote in January and which will rule the country until the appointment of a new cabinet. Some CSSD priorities were incorporated in the text, such as the ban on privatisation of public services and state-controlled companies, a guarantee that direct healthcare payment by patients would not go up and some social benefits.
However, the policy statement does not include the estate duty and a special tax imposed on banks, which the Social Democrats demanded.
The CSSD members will decide on whether to form a coalition with ANO under the given conditions in a referendum that the party’s leadership is to declare on Friday and that is to last until early June.