Senate speaker criticized lack of communication between upper and lower chambers

The speaker of the Senate, Milan Štěch, has criticized what he called “the poor level of communication” between the coalition and opposition parties. Addressing the upper house on occasion of the 16th anniversary of its founding Mr. Štech said that the lack of communication not just with the lower chamber by also with government ministers contributed to the public’s flagging trust in political institutions. The Social Democrat senator said that in the past 16 years the upper chamber had justified its existence in reviewing proposed legislation and noted that the government proposed reforms would be more widely accepted by the public if criticism and recommendations from the Senate were given greater consideration instead of just being overruled by a majority vote in the lower house.