Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told journalists that his country should not accept some refugees in order to convince Brussels to withdraw its legal complaint over its rejection of refugee quotas. He said it is a matter of principle.
As reported by The Prague Daily Monitor, Babis said he wants to discuss the issue with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.
On December 7, the European Commission decided to file a legal complaint over the refusal of migrant quotas against the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. The court can impose a one-off high fine on the countries in question.
Slovakia has avoided the action, although it only received 16 people.
“If you remember it, Slovakia was the first to have protested against the quotas,” said Babis, adding that it is questionable whether any migrants really came to Slovakia.
“We cannot resolve the fine by accepting 20 refugees,” Babis added.
According to a new poll by the CVVM public opinion research centre, four fifths of Czechs said the Czech Republic should not be fulfilling the EU quotas for accepting asylum seekers.
Specifically, 55% of the respondents said a definite no to the quotas, while 25% tended to reject them. Only 11% supported them.
According to CVVM, the findings of the poll corresponds to a view of the public on the acceptance of migrants from Muslim countries even if facing the situation of the country losing the EU funds due to it.
Most Czechs consider refugees a major security threat for Europe (88%), the world (78%) and their country (76%).
