1989 leaders call for government to drop opposition to refugee quotas

A number of leading figures in the 1989 Velvet Revolution have written an open letter calling on the Czech government to reassess its opposition to an EU quota system for refugees. The group, comprising Michael Kocáb, Ivan Gabal, Fedor Gál, Jan Urban and Jan Ruml, said the government’s uncompromising position on the matter could lead to the erosion of the Schengen zone and the breakup of the EU. They said the public should be truthfully informed about the number of illegal migrants and asylum seekers who have passed through the Czech Republic in the last two decades without endangering the state. Other signatories include priest Tomáš Halík, political scientist Jiří Pehe and former Constitutional Court judge Eliška Wagnerová.