The Czech Minister of Justice Marie Benešová has refuted the claim that the state caused damage to companies by forcing them to close during the COVID-19 pandemic. Court cases seeking compensation therefore have little chance of winning compensation, she said, because the spread of the disease could only be stopped by forcing stores, restaurants and other services to shut down.
“The state didn’t cause any damage, this is a natural phenomenon,” she said in an interview on Czech Television. “Damage has to be paid by whoever caused it and I say that this was definitely not the state.” She criticized the decision by a Prague court in late April which found that four of the restrictive measures that the government carried out were illegal. The restrictions were necessary, said Benešová, to avoid a disaster of Italian dimensions. “The measures that were taken were appropriate to the situation. It would be something else if the state seized your building, but every businessman has to prepare for the possibility that he won’t be able to open his business.”
