Czech Party Wants Regular Referendums on Leaving the EU

The Tricolor Citizens’ Movement political party (Trikolóra) aims to introduce regular referendums on withdrawal from the European Union every time there is a parliamentary election.

The movement embraced this point when modifying its election program. According to the chairman of the movement, Václav Klaus Jr. the reason for the change in the program was the simplification of the movement’s stance towards the EU.

“We used to talk about the termination of the Lisbon Treaty, but it seems that we were incapable of explaining this to the voters fully,” Klaus told the Echo24 online daily.

Although Czechs support their membership in the EU, there are a number of points where Czechs diverge from the policies promoted in Brussels, such as its welcoming stance towards migrants and its past attempts to impose migrant quotas on member states.

“We will request a referendum on remaining in the Union to be part of every parliamentary election. The reason behind this is not only to save money but also our conviction that the people of this nation have the right to make decisions about our country, where our ancestors lived since the time of St. Wenceslas,” Klaus Jr. continued.

EU directives currently make up 60 percent of Czech laws. “So it is unreasonable to lead any political struggles about 40 percent of the laws and not vote on the rest of the agenda. We are not calling for Czechxit, but we are calling for respect for democratic rules,” said Klaus.

He asserted that the movement is not seeking hard Czechxit.

“Currently, the Czech Republic does not have the strength to withdraw from the Union. On the other hand, what the EU is up to, the Green Deal, migration, and other things, is devastating. It should be clear in the future that only Czech citizens have to decide on life in the Czech Republic, and we cannot give up this right,” Klaus believes.