Czech NGOs have condemned plans to cut foreign and humanitarian aid programmes by approximately half, announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Macinka of the anti-green and eurosceptic Motorists for Themselves party as part of an austerity drive.

Under the budget drafted for this year by the previous centre-right cabinet of Petr Fiala, the allocation for the MFA’s humanitarian, development and economy aid programme amounted to CZK1bn, while Macinka’s cuts reduced it to CZK500mn, Czech Television (CT) noted.  

Earlier, Macinka blamed the previous cabinet for the need to resort to cuts in foreign and humanitarian aid programmes, stating “there is no money, real savings need to be made,” as quoted by online news outlet Novinky.cz last week.  

Man in Need, one of the best known Czech NGOs active internationally, including in Gaza, Syria and Yemen, is to have the funding for its activities from the Czech MFA scrapped altogether after receiving CZK165mn last year.

“For this year – according to this proposal – it looks like zero,” head of humanitarian aid at Man in Need Marek Štys told CT, adding that “the government proposal, which is now going to the Chamber [of Deputies] implies in the sharp lowering dismantling of the whole Czech foreign aid”.

Macinka also told media earlier that his ministry already spent CZK10mn on heat generators for Ukraine, leaving CZK40mn allocated for humanitarian aid.  

As bne IntelliNews reported earlier, the new cabinet led by Andrej Babiš' populist ANO party scrapped the budget for this year drafted by the predecessor cabinet, arguing it was unrealistic.

After the Babiš government moved to revise the original budget, the country entered this year on provisional budget rules, which cap the spending at 1/12 of the 2025 budget costs a month.

The revised budget is expected to be passed by the parliament on March 11, where the ANO, Motorists and the far right SPD coalition wields a comfortable 108-majority.

Babiš did not rule out raising the foreign aid spending after the provisional budget rules are replaced with the final budget for this year, stating that “we will help in a humanitarian way, we said, we won’t pay for weapons”.

Earlier, Babiš’s coalition reviewed the Czech-led initiative of collecting and supplying ammunition to Ukraine, arguing the scheme is not transparent, but the prime minister also stated he would not object to the initiative if other states fund it.