Šmarda withdrew his nomination for minister; he announced it to Hamáček

Prague – Vice Chairman of the ČSSD Michal Šmarda has withdrawn his nomination for Minister of Culture. This evening he informed the chairman of the Social Democrats, Jan Hamáček, who supported him. Šmarda spoke about it on Czech Television (ČT). He wants to run in the Senate elections in Žďár in the next year.

"Of course, under the current circumstances, I do not want to be in the government of Andrej Babiš (ANO). It makes no sense at all. I will not play a game with anyone here that we will wait, we will keep troubling him a little longer, and then he will resign on his own," said Šmarda. He also intends to recommend that ČSSD leave the government coalition with the ANO movement.

"I respect Michal Šmarda's decision to withdraw his candidacy for Minister of Culture, and I understand him humanly, even though I regret it," Hamáček stated on Twitter.

Šmarda agrees with President Miloš Zeman that his disadvantage is the lack of a direct mandate from voters for central politics. "A person who does not have a direct mandate from voters is always at a great disadvantage. Because whenever they start to get a bit too ambitious, they end up as a toy in the hands of cynical powerful people," he told ČT. He does not want this to happen in the future, so he will seek a mandate in the Senate elections. "Only after that, with this mandate, would I go to talk to Mr. Babiš again about whether it is possible to criticize him in the Czech Republic, or whether that is not possible," he noted.

According to him, potential candidates for Minister of Culture from the ČSSD could be, for example, the Governor of Vysočina Jiří Běhounek or the Governor of the Pardubice Region Martin Netolický. "However, we would damage the party before the regional elections, as they should lead the candidates' lists, and the Ministry of Culture probably wouldn't help them in that," Šmarda stated. He also mentioned the Deputy Minister of Culture Kateřina Kalistová as a suitable candidate. However, he believes she would risk getting into a conflict with the Prime Minister and ruining her career.

The dispute over the replacement of the minister has been ongoing for a quarter of a year. President Miloš Zeman, in the middle of the summer after two months from the submission of the proposal, dismissed Antonín Staněk (ČSSD), but promised to comment on his successor only in mid-August. Last Wednesday, he stated that Šmarda is professionally incompetent because he has never dealt with issues of Czech culture. He asked the ČSSD to propose another candidate. At the end of last week, Babiš also rejected Šmarda, among other reasons due to his recent statements.