“He is unfit for the office of President.” The Senate will vote on Zeman’s removal from office
Milo Zeman, according to the Senate Security Committee, is unfit to serve as President of the Czech Republic. The Senate will vote next week on the removal of Zeman as president. According to the constitution, its possible verdict would have to be confirmed by the lower house. The committee’s chairman, Pavel Fischer (independent), told reporters on Wednesday.
According to Fischer, Zeman has demonstrated, among other things, in his statements from the Vrbtice case, that he is disoriented, misquotes the constitution, and interprets reality in a way that confuses effect with cause. “He is not acting in accordance with his promise; he is acting in violation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms,” the committee chairman said.
According to Fischer, the committee relied on Zeman’s public statements. The committee chairman cited, among other things, Zeman’s repeated statements that there are multiple investigative versions of the 2014 explosions in Vrbtice, in the Zlin region. Despite repeated statements by investigators, secret services, and Prime Minister Andrej Babi (ANO) about a single investigative version in which Russian intelligence agents were behind the explosions, Zeman insisted on this.
Fischer stated that the president’s statement in the Vrbtice case is the culmination of Zeman’s statements that endanger the Czech Republic’s security. According to the committee chairman, the president is unable to distinguish between classified and public information. He also noted that Zeman did not speak publicly about the Vrbtice case until a week after the scandal was revealed.
The upper house had proposed a constitutional action against Zeman last year. It accused him of failing to act when appointing or dismissing government members, as well as acting in violation of the Czech Republic’s official foreign policy. The lawsuit arose as a result of the president’s and Castle’s alleged influence on the judiciary. However, the submission of the lawsuit was not approved by the Chamber of Deputies, in which Zeman’s supporters from ANO, SSD, KSM, and SPD have a majority.