2024-03-15 01:57:27
The Mayors are to come to the European Parliament with a proposal for a new commissioner for the Czech Republic after the June elections. However, the main government party, ODS, has its own name prepared – Marko Mora, deputy at the Ministry of Finance – with which it will want to “beat out” the STAN candidate.
Officially, the earlier agreement of the government coalition that the successor of Věra Jourová in the European Commission will be proposed by the STAN movement still applies. “Most recently, two weeks ago, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) confirmed to me that the agreement on our nomination is valid,” Minister for European Affairs Martin Dvořák (STAN) told Aktuálně.cz.
In this context, the Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkel and the leader of STAN in the European elections, economist and former presidential candidate Danuša Nerudová, are most often talked about.
But an alternative scenario is brewing behind the scenes. As several representatives of the ODS said off the record, the main government party has prepared the current deputy minister of finance, the former vice-governor of the central bank, Marko Mora, as a suitable person for the post of European commissioner.
The ODS considers the behavior of the Starosts, especially the January video campaign of their chairman Vít Rakušan, in which he indirectly supported the government and invited citizens to debates in the regions, to be disloyal. For this reason, the civic democrats do not want to grant the movement the privilege of sending a representative to Brussels.
The name of the fifty-two-year-old Stanjur’s deputy was in the broader considerations of the ODS from the beginning. But there were other people close to the party, for example the former Minister of Defense and now the head of the European Defense Agency in Brussels, diplomat Jiří Šedivý. He publicly expressed his interest in the post of commissioner and specifically the one connected with defense.
However, the Polish government has already claimed the seat of the defense commissioner, which should be created in the new commission. She offered a strong name for him – her foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorský.
It weakens the Czech Republic’s chances of winning this seat and brings back into play the ambition to win an economic portfolio, as representatives of the ODS talked about in the past. Mark Mora’s name would allow them to say that his nomination increases just such chances.
Mora is not a member of any party, his views are close to ODS. The last time he drew attention to himself was when he entered the debate about the euro. He was critical of the state of the eurozone and called the early entry of the Czech Republic into the ERM II exchange rate system, a kind of “eurozone antechamber”, nonsense.
Mora worked directly in Brussels for many years. Most recently, he worked as the director for budget and tax and regional policy in the secretariat of the Council of the EU, which is an institution representing the interests of member countries. The ODS could thus say that it is sending a real expert on EU politics to the commission.
“He is competent, loyal and knows the Brussels environment very well,” a member of the ODS leadership summarized the arguments in favor of Stanjur’s deputy off the record. “Furthermore, he was in the central bank under the government of ANO and Zeman, so Babiš would not be able to interfere so much,” he added. Aktuálně.cz also contacted Mora himself, but he did not want to comment on his possible return to Brussels.
The government has not yet discussed the name of the new Czech European Commissioner. The coalition parties are waiting until the European elections, which take place at the beginning of June. If the STAN movement were to succeed significantly in them, which the polls so far indicate, the nomination of European Commissioner will probably remain with him.
If, on the other hand, STAN does not get a double-digit result, ODS will have Mora ready. The rest of the coalition would have to agree to his nomination.
Another government party can intervene in the game – the Pirates. They claim that the agreement to come with the new Czech European Commissioner does not only concern STAN, but also the Pirates, who ran in the 2021 parliamentary elections in a coalition with the Mayors. The pirates have already approved their candidate for commissioner, he is MEP Marcel Kolaja.
“I am not surprised that the ODS is questioning the agreement with us behind the scenes. It will be like that until the elections,” said Jan Farský, number two on the STAN candidate for the European elections. “Marek Mora is certainly one of the Czechs who could handle the position of European Commissioner. But he is not our candidate,” he added.