Pre-election Senate rushes vote on foreign army missions

The Senate has moved forward the reading of a bill on Czech Army involvement in foreign missions over the next two years in order to forestall a veto by the incoming opposition-dominated Senate. Senate chairman Přemysl Sobotka said that the matter should not be postponed for the sake of the troops abroad and the country’s obligations to NATO. Chairman of the opposition Social Democrats Bohuslav Sobotka said the move made a mockery of all citizens who had come to vote in the Senate elections, in which the Social Democrats gained a majority of the upper house. The government’s plan for foreign military missions until 2013 includes a temporary increase in soldiers in Afghanistan and the gradual reduction of troops in Kosovo.