Zeman: Merry Christmas and Begone!

Lany, Central Bohemia, Dec 26 (CTK) – The EU redistribution quotas for refugees are against Czech national interests and they should vanish without a trace, President Milos Zeman said in his traditional Christmas message today.

 

In the EU and NATO, the Czech Republic should behave as a resolute and self-confident partner that is ready to stand up against what it dislikes, Zeman said.

 

Zeman warned that he had been criticising the EU in the long run for being unable to secure its outer border.

 

“As far as NATO is concerned, it should be much more active in the struggle against Islamic terrorism,” he added.

 

The migrant quotas are the most burning foreign policy problem, Zeman said.

 

Preservation of national sovereignty is in the Czech national interest, he added.

 

“No one can dictate to us whom we should install in our country. I believe that the concept of migrant quotas will vanish without a trace and that in a year, no one will speak about it,” Zeman said.

 

The migrant redistribution mechanism was rejected by the government of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) earlier this year and the position was repeated by his successor, Prime Minister Andrej Babis, at a recent summit of the EU in Brussels.

 

The Czech Republic insists on the migration being primarily solved in the countries from where the refugees are coming and with a better protection of the EU border.