President Calls For Health Min's Sacking Over Russian Vaccine Rollout

Czech President Milos Zeman has called for the sacking of Health Minister Jan Blatny for failing to rush through an approval of Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines.

• As a largely ceremonial president, Zeman, a populist with close political ties to Russia, does not have the ability to dismiss ministers. That power lies with Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Zeman has said he will ask Babis to dismiss Blatny at their scheduled meeting on 22 March.
• At present the EMA has not approved Russia's Sputnik V for use in the EU and has warned against emergency authorisations at the member state level. However, this has been ignored in some countries with Hungary already using the vaccine en masse (which has seen the country speed ahead of EU peers in the rollout of vaccines) and Slovakia about to take its first delivery of doses.
• The row highlights the ongoing broader political battles affecting many eastern European EU gov'ts. Populists and those seeking closer political ties to Russia are advocating for gov'ts to go it alone in approving Sputnik V. Meanwhile, pro-EU politicians have advocated not rushing ahead and instead waiting for EU distribution of approved vaccines. With countries desperate to return to a form of normality the former voices are increasingly winning out over the latter.