MEP for TOP 09 and current deputy mayor of Prague Jiří Pospíšil did not participate in every third vote on the floor of the European Parliament last year. This is the largest absentee among Czech members of the Diet, according to newly published statistics. Although the politician does not dispute the data, he claims that it is not a relevant indicator of his work commitment.
Jiří Pospíšil was absent from 36.5 percent of the vote, and so sovereignly leads the table of absences. Second behind him is Stanislav Polčák for STAN, who did not participate in almost 30 percent of the vote. At the opposite end with zero or minimal absence are Luděk Niedermayer (TOP 09), Marcel Kolaja (Pirates) and Dita Charanzová (for ANO). The largest group of Czechs missed one-sixth to one-fifth of the vote, which is the average for the entire European Parliament.
The comparison was published on social networks under the account Europarlament clearly, which regularly publishes an overview of the votes of Czech MEPs. Analysts hired by the Greens/EFA faction, which also includes the Czech Pirates, are behind the profile.
The year 2022 was so far the only calendar year in this election period when MEPs voted in person for the whole year. This means that they could only vote when they were present in Parliament.
The absence of Czech MEPs on voting days in plenary was as follows in 2022 👇 pic.twitter.com/wfLzz0cVi0
— European Parliament at a glance (@ep_prehledne) May 17, 2023
The data scientists analyzed Czech voting participation during 52 voting days in 2022. If an MEP pressed the yes-no-abstain button at least once on that day, it was counted as participation. If not, they got an “A”.
But it does not mean that they were not present at the meeting. They could be physically in Brussels or Strasbourg at a given moment and engaged in other political work. They just didn’t participate in voting on proposed laws or policy statements.
“I refuse to be inactive”
Jiří Pospíšil refused the analysis when asked by the newspaper Aktuálně.cz. Although he did not dispute the data on his absence, he claims that it is not a relevant indicator of the MEP’s performance. “I do not consider the statistics prepared by the people around the Pirates to be trustworthy. It says very little about the real work of MEPs,” he responded through his spokesman.
“I refuse to be inactive in the European Parliament. If we were to evaluate, for example, the number of plenary sessions, I am one of the most active Czech MEPs,” added Jiří Pospíšil, adding that he also regularly educates Czech students about the functioning of the European Union. The MEP did not answer what his explanation is for almost twice as many missed votes as compared to his colleagues.
It is not the first time that in Pospíšil’s case, his ability to handle the assigned functions has been addressed. Last year, the politician was already a representative in Prague alongside the MEP and at the same time headed the Jan and Meda Mládk Foundation (Museum Kampa). In February of this year, he became the new deputy mayor of Prague for culture.
He retained the MEP mandate, including his full salary of almost a quarter of a million. In an earlier interview for Aktuálně.cz, he defended the accumulation of functions, saying that he can handle both. “In today’s online age, I can conduct many meetings with colleagues and subordinates remotely. I don’t see a problem with that,” he said at the time.
The work does not end with the vote
Tuesday and Wednesday are the main voting days at MEP meetings in Strasbourg. The plenary session starts in the early evening on Monday and ends at noon on Thursday. Many members of the Diet shorten their stay by the first and last day.
The MEP’s long-term illness will also be reflected in the statistics. This was the case last year with the second biggest absentee, Stanislav Polčák, who spent almost two months in the hospital.
However, the activity of MEPs does not end with voting. Their activity in committees or in the leadership of political factions is also indicative of them, as well as the fact if they were in charge of key legislative proposals. The EUmatrix server compiled a table of the hundred most influential MEPs out of a total of seven hundred, which takes into account all the mentioned criteria. Six Czechs got into it. Pospíšil, who is a member of a less powerful committee and is not in the leadership of his (people’s) faction, is not among them.
