Government not lawmakers should set salary levels for MPs and senators, says Babiš

Pay-rises for MPs and senators should in future be decided on by the government rather than legislators, the minister of finance, Andrej Babiš, said on Tuesday. His ANO party and government partners the Social Democrats are in favour of a 1 percent pay-rise next year, with the latter’s chairman, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, calling for a lower house debate on the issue next month. A four-year freeze agreed by a previous centre-right government envisaged an increase of 26% from 2015. A Chamber of Deputies budget committee recently suggested a pay rise of 14%, a figure President Miloš Zeman described as greedy and pledged to veto.