The Czech finance minister Andrej Babiš lashed out against president Miloš Zeman over his comments that he’d like to see the Czech National Bank council filled with people who want the country to enter the eurozone. Babiš said the the council must be an independent body, removed from the influence of politicians. President Zeman criticized the central bank during a recent visit to Hradec Králové for devaluing the Czech koruna against the euro. “Luckily, the president names the members of the bank council and in 2016 the president can also name a new central bank covernor. And I’ll do everything so that this honored institution isn’t filled with people who do useless experiments with the Czech economy and who will support the entry of the Czech Republic into the Eurozone. This is something that most of our businessmen want.”
Babiš scolded the president for the remarks. “The Czech National Bank is an independent institution and those kinds of conditions for entry into the bank council are not acceptable,” he told the daily MfD. The bank began its intervention in 2013 with the goal of keeping the koruna near the CZK 27 per euro.
