Political leader’s communist past revives debate on abolition of screening law

Talks on the line-up of a new Czech government have hit a snag. One of the key partners in the emerging coalition, ANO leader Andrej Babiš, is listed as a communist collaborator which would prevent him from holding a ministerial post. The fact that he will not be able to provide a clean screening certificate has revived a debate on whether it may not be time to make a clean break with the past.

Andrej Babiš, photo: CTK

The so-called screening law, passed two years after the fall of communism, was intended to keep former secret police collaborators, members of the communist party’s paramilitary units and communist apparatchiks from high posts in the civil service. In addition to that, the post-1989 Communist Party, which made no effort to distance itself from its predecessor, was shunned as a potential partner in government. Over the years that has slowly changed –the Communists are active in local politics and although the Social Democratic Party has not yet scrapped its 1995 resolution not to cooperate with the Communists on a national level an increasing number of party members believe the time has come to make a clean break with the past.

Now the last barrier may be about to fall: efforts to put together a coalition government have strengthened support for the scrapping of the screening law with Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka calling it “outlived” twenty-five years after the fall of communism and indicating that his party may be ready to support its abolition. Andrej Babiš’ ANO party –which would be voting on its leader’s political future - would also back the motion, as would the Communists who have been proposing in vain to get the law abolished for years. Even the Christian Democrats –the smallest partner in the emerging three party coalition- are not rocking the boat, saying they will wait and see how matter evolve.

The change of attitude has evoked a negative response from two right wing parties TOP 09 and the Civic Democrats. Jana Černochova from the Civic Democratic Party says the move would be a betrayal of the ethical values and democratic principles the country embraced after 1989.

Jana Černochová|Photo: David Sedlecký, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

“Under no circumstances are we prepared to support the abolition of the screening law. It is as if the Germans had allowed former members of the Gestapo to work in the civil service in the 1970s. And my question is where do we go from here? Will the Social Democrats propose the abolition of the law on anti-communist resistance?”

The next cue on the issue is expected to come from President Miloš Zeman. Although several weeks ago Mr. Zeman warned he would not appoint anyone to government who was not able to produce a clean screening certificate, Andrej Babiš recently visited the head of state to discuss the matter and reportedly came away optimistic. His party is now arguing that the new civil service act could replace the old screening law and the problem would be resolved. Political commentator Jiří Pehe argues that this should have happened long ago.

“I personally think the screening law outlived its purpose five or six years after the Velvet Revolution and I think the last chance to abolish it with some dignity was in 2002 when the law on civil service was adopted. Unfortunately, that law never went into effect, it was postponed several times so the screening (or lustration law as it is called in Czech) stayed in force. I think it was a revolutionary measure designed to prevent people with ties to the secret police and the communist party from holding positions in the government and government-controlled organizations, but definitely 22 years after it was passed it seems to be a bit obsolete.”

What would you say to arguments that the moral if not the security aspect is still pertinent?

“Well, I think that the moral aspect is pertinent, but it needs to be dealt with in a different way than with the help of a law that in my opinion is now really out of date. Moreover, the moral aspect of the lustration law does not really address other significant problems. If we take as an example the case of Mr. Andrej Babiš –the leader of ANO – who wants to become a minister and he may not be able to get a clean lustration certificate –we have to ask ourselves how is it possible that someone such as Mr. Babiš cannot become a minister and at the same time he can be one of the most influential businessmen in the country and he can own some of the most influential media- and that is OK with Czech society but him becoming a minister is not possible under this law. So we should really set our priorities straight and maybe engage in a broader discussion on what really constitutes morality in our country.”

Do you feel that there will now be enough political will to scrap the screening law?

Jiří Pehe, photo: Katarína Brezovská

“In my opinion the screening law should only be scrapped in connection with a new law on civil service. I don’t think it would be very fortunate to abolish the screening law on its own, just because Mr. Babiš wants to become a minister. That would be really unfortunate politically and otherwise. But we all know that the law on civil service, as it was designed, was supposed to scrap the screening law or at least to lead to its cancellation because all of the conditions for working in the civil service and appointing people to high positions in government would be defined in the civil service law. In my opinion, if this new law is adopted, then it will solve the problem with the screening law as well because it will no longer be needed and it will be clear that with a new civil service law in place it really has outlived its purpose.”