Jiří Ovčáček, spokesman for Czech president Miloš Zeman, says that the U.S. is now an ally of the Slavic republic in the fight against mass immigration, contending that President Donald Trump is, unlike “EU elites”, concerned primarily “with the safety of his citizens”.
Ovčáček was defending the swift implementation of an executive order by the U.S. president on ‘Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals’, which temporarily prohibits all asylum seekers from entering the United States and indefinitely prohibits Syrian asylum seekers from entering the United States while a thorough review of the refugee vetting process is undertaken.
“Trump protects his country,” Ovčáček wrote in a tweet, “he’s concerned with the safety of his citizens. Exactly what EU elites do not do”.
The former newspaper editor followed up with another tweet, stating that the “[Czech] President has long disagreed with accepting Muslim migrants. The priority is the safety of CZ citizens. USA is our ally now.”
The Czech Republic has polled as even more Eurosceptic than the United Kingdom, and President Zeman’s calls for a referendum in his own country have lead to speculation that Brexit may be followed by Czechout.
Prague has clashed with Brussels on a number of issues. Disagreements have included gun rights, with the EU responding to the Czech president’s call for citizens to “arm themselves against terrorists” by imposing draconian, bloc-wide restrictions on private ownership of firearms, and the migrant crisis, with Zeman branding German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “no limit” policy “nonsensical”.
Zeman believes that Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood are using the migration crisis to “prepare a growing migrant wave and gradually gain control of Europe … it has been happening in some West European cities that police are afraid to enter at night”.
Zeman’s sentiments align with Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage’s warning that “open borders risk terrorism and sex attacks”.
German intelligence has acknowledged that Islamist “hit squads and sleeper cells” have infiltrated Europe through the influx.
“We have substantial reports that among the refugees there are hit squads,” admitted Manfred Hauser, vice-president of Bavarian intelligence. “There are hundreds of these reports, some from refugees themselves.”