Babiš calls on Mynář to quit after police start investigation

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has called on the head of President Miloš Zeman’s office to resign, iDnes.cz reported on Tuesday. Mr. Babiš says that if Vratislav Mynář does not quit himself he will remove him following the activation of article 66 of the Czech constitution, under which a president’s powers can be removed due to incapacity, when he would make personnel changes himself.

Mr. Babiš said Mr. Mynář’s activities were the main problem in current events surrounding the health of the president and that what he had done was “absolutely unacceptable”.

Miloš Zeman has been in an ICU for over a week with an unrevealed chronic condition. His doctors say that he is not capable of performing his duties as head of state at present and that there is little chance of him being able to do so soon.

The police are investigating whether a possible “crime against the republic” was committed in connection with his team’s handling of the president since he was hospitalised.

Mr. Zeman’s doctors say that Mr. Mynář was informed of the president’s incapacity to perform his duties last Wednesday.

However, a day later Mr. Mynář mediated a meeting between the head of state and the speaker of the lower house, Radek Vondráček, who later made public a document convening the new Chamber of Deputies in early November and purportedly signed by Mr. Zeman.