Wednesday’s meeting between the current Minister of Health Roman Prymula and the second man of the ANO movement, Jaroslav Faltýnka, at the closed Rio’s restaurant in Rio’s has still not been fully clarified. Some circumstances suggest that inside the building at Vyšehrad in Prague, the participants did not only address current political issues related to the covid-19 epidemic, as described by both main actors.
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The point is that the night meeting was probably also attended by people who formally have nothing to do with politics and health care and have no mandate to conduct such meetings.
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It is already certain that, in addition to Faltínek and Prymula, the director of the state-owned Ostrava University Hospital, Jiří Havrlant, was also at a night meeting in a separate lounge, who himself admitted it, however, from yesterday’s statement by the Minister of Health for the weekly Respekt It follows that in the building adjacent to the Basilica of St. Peter and Paul sat Prymul with a total of four people. Therefore, two names are missing.
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At least one person is missing
Who else was, the minister does not want to disclose. “I don’t have their consent,” he told Respect. For the presence of unspecified persons the tabloid newspaper Blesk also pointed out, which opened the whole case yesterday. His findings show that Prymula arrived at the building before ten o’clock in the evening and “after some time, other people came out in a good mood.”
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From Faltynek’s statement for Czech Television it turns out that he came to the Rio’s restaurant in Vyšehrad from his apartment in Podolí, Prague, “a little earlier”. It is therefore probable that the second man of the YES movement arrived in advance and spent some time inside without a minister, in the presence of those unknown persons. Probably also with Havrlant, who had to come from Ostrava.
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Faltýnek’s performance yesterday also shows that the operator of the restaurant, Raimund Špunda, was inside the building at that time. With him, Faltýnek (without the obligatory veil) was caught by tabloid photographers in a conversation in front of the building.
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Even if Špunda was part of the four-member group that Minister Prymula talked about, at least one person is still missing.
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Gallery owner and lawyer
Sources The List of News from the YES movement says that one of the Prague gallerists, Faltýnek’s good acquaintance, also took part in the event with a very high degree of probability. The same source also speaks about the possible participation of a lawyer from Moravia. The source also mentioned their names, but the information has not yet been verified.
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List The messages were repeatedly tried to contact both alleged participants, but they did not receive phone calls, they did not respond to repeated SMS messages.
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Faltýnek, as well as Prymula and the director of the Ostrava hospital Havrlant, are stubbornly silent about other participants. The List News also asked for an opinion on the same matter.
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Faltýnek described the whole meeting on Wednesday in that he, as the chairman of the ANO parliamentary group, negotiated with Prymul about the current situation with the covid-19. Among other things, the minister was supposed to explain to him matters concerning the planned mission of military doctors from the USA, because it will have to be approved by the Chamber of Deputies.
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Prymula again spoke about the fact that, in addition to parliamentary questions, they were to deal with Faltýnek and Havrlant on issues related to the planned comprehensive testing of people in the Moravian-Silesian region. In the same spirit, the director of the Ostrava University Hospital Havrlant spoke about testing yesterday.
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However, if private individuals also took part in the meetings of three persons working in the civil service, Faltýnek, Prymula and Havrlant should explain why this happened and what their role was.
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Uncertain punishment
At the same time, the night meeting of this group has relatively major political implications. This was at a time when the covid-19 epidemic was taking alarming forms.
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Due to negotiations in the restaurant at a time of harsh anti-epidemic measures, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš called on Prymula to resign. But he refused, as he did not think he would violate any measure. He only admitted that he had not been required to cover the car when he got into the car about half an hour before midnight and was in close proximity to his personal driver for a few seconds without mouth protection. Babiš is now ready to recall Prymula due to his failure, and he should probably be replaced by Jan Blatný, deputy director of the Brno University Hospital.
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Faltýnek, the main organizer of the meeting, is leaving the post of 1st Vice-Chair YES. However, he still retains a key position in the Chamber of Deputies – the post of chairman of the parliamentary group. He wants his parliamentary colleagues from the government movement to vote on his future. Faltýnek does not think about giving up his parliamentary mandate at all.
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