Time to question usefulness of screening law, says Sobotka

The leader of the Social Democrats, Bohuslav Sobotka, says the interpretation of a law preventing collaborators with the communist-era secret police holding high office should not be allowed to hold up talks on forming coalition. ANO chief Andrej Babiš has appeared on a list of secret police collaborators and is currently fighting allegations he cooperated with them in the courts in his native Slovakia. If he does not acquire a lustration (screening) certificate, he will not be able to enter government. Mr. Sobotka said on a TV debate show on Sunday that, 25 years after the revolution, it was time to ask whether the law should still be enforced.

Author: Ian Willoughby