In an interview for the Právo journal, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš assured the public that the 10 billion crowns, lost as part of the Communist requirement in the process of approving the state budget, will be returned to the Army budget in January.
In an interview concerning the current state of the pandemic situation, Prime Minister Babiš also spoke about whether 10 billion crowns will be returned to the defense budget, which was shortened during the discussion of the state budget for this year. Babiš said in the interview that he is counting on returning the money to the Ministry of Defense, even now in January. "It will definitely be evem this month. We have made it clear that they will receive the money during January, and that is true. I have also seen speculation that we will not do it. It is nonsense," Babiš said.
See also: The Army will eventually lose 10 billion. The Government succumbed to the communist request
In the recent interview, the Prime Minister reiterated again the role of the Army, which it plays in the currently unfavorable epidemiological situation, and therefore deserves the mentioned funds. "900 soldiers help every day in hospitals, in nursing homes and at sampling points. Without the Army, we would find it difficult to fight the pandemic," Babiš said in the interview.
In an interview for the same journal, only a few days before the Government accepted the Communist requirement, Babiš used the same wording to refuse the idea: „I see no reason for that. I will not agree to behave in the same way as previous Governments, which, once the crisis came, took the money from the Army.“ In the end, he eventually did.
The money should have been returned to the Army at the beginning of January. It was not. PM than said: „We will definitely return the money to the Army in January, it is true that it was originally planned from January 4, but for some technical reasons it is postponed.“ No wonder speculations rise around the topic.
See also: Czech Army acquisitions for 2021 – the investments should reach 25.1 billion
Andrej Babiš spoke out strongly against the cuts in the defense budget even before. At the Army command assembly in November last year, he clearly stood up for the Army and, on the contrary, criticized the Communist request. He said he rejected any attempt not to increase the budget.
A month later, however, in the process of discussing the state budget for 2021, the Communist party, with the consent of the prime minister’s ANO movement and the Socialists, enforced the amendment, which took 10 billion Crowns the Army chapter of the Ministry of Defense dedicated to investments and moved it to the budget reserve. At the same time, this was an insurmountable condition for the Communists to vote in favor of the budget. Without their votes, the approval of the state budget would not be possible. Immediately after the state budget was approved, the Government said it would return the money back to the Army. What it really was than the Communists actually did get from the Government, one might ask.