Prague - Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech Parliament, today stopped the motion of leftist parties to call a plebiscite on the issue of building a radar in the Brdy region west of Prague, which would form part of the proposed US anti-missile defense shield.
The draft law was defeated in its third reading when it mustered support of only 76 MPs with 57 against, when at least 120 votes were needed for it to be sent to the upper chamber.
Cracks appear in the coalition
Communists (KSČM) and social democrats (ČSSD) were the only ones fully supporting it, along with ex-ČSSD, now independent, deputy Miloš Melčák and somewhat surprisingly also Ludvík Hovorka from the ruling coalition's Christian Democratic Union (KDU-ČSL), Zdeňka Horníková and Daniel Rovan, both from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the coalition's leader.
The Christian Democrats were split on the issue with one half abstaining and one voting against the motion.
The Greens who once led a heated inner-party debate about the US radar abstained en bloc. Two ODS MPs also chose not to vote on the issue along with Michal Pohanka, the other half of the ex-ČSSD splinter duo, despised intensely with Melčák by his former party and regularly called turncoat ("přeběhlík" in Czech, literally meaning someone who "ran over to the other side") even by mainstream media.
The draft law never had much chance to succeed but the coalition was not able to stop it when it was first put forward by the communists.
People vs. Government. Who gets to decide?
"The people of the Czech Republic ought to have a right to decide, as a sovereign people, an issue of such importance," said one of the co-sponsors of the draft law, communist MP Stanislav Grospič.
"There have been referenda held in 19 municipalities where people made it clear they want to have a say in the matter," he appealed to the fellow members of the House shortly before the final vote.
The constitutional committee of the chamber recommended that the draft law be scrapped in its prior decision. Jiří Polanský (ODS), the committee member, explained why:
"Fundamental decisions on security issues belong strictly to the government's sphere of competence. Moreover, contents of the agreement (between the US and the Czech Republic) are not clear at this point, thus the decision on the radar could be prejudiced by this motion," he said.
