Top parliament officials call for solidarity and tolerance

In his New Year's speech, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Radek Vondráček called on Czechs to stand together in the fight against Covid-19. He said that, apart from the death of thousands of people, the worst thing that the pandemic had brought was new divisions in the society; divisions between those who respected the restrictions and the deniers, creating rifts even within families.

According to him, people found an excuse in the crisis to attack those they do not like –be it the government, the opposition or the media.  According to him, the society is more divided than when it entered 2020. Vondráček said that despite their differences Czechs had often shown themselves to be a nation that stood together in times of crisis and appealed on the public to show greater tolerance towards others in this challenging time. I would like my New Year’s message to be perceived as an appeal for us to communicate more and listen more to each other, he said.

The Speaker of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil also called for solidarity and cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus. He said the Czech Republic did well in the first wave of the pandemic but the government later lost the trust of the public as the situation worsened. The government’s measures need to be more conceptual and predictable for that trust to be restored, he said. At the same time, he noted that this was no time to hit out at political opponents at all cost. He appealed for Czechs to get the vaccine and not to fall prey to disinformation campaigns and populists.