(Bloomberg) -- Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis vowed to defend the country's key car-making industry, saying he'll challenge a European Union proposal to abandon petrol and diesel cars by 2035.
“We won't agree with the ban on selling fossil-fuel-powered cars,” he told the iDnes news website on Wednesday. “It's not possible. We can't dictate here what green fanatics devised in the European Parliament.”
The nation, one of the world's top automotive producers on a per-capita basis, will make the topic a priority when it assumes the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of 2022, Babis said.
Czechs will support infrastructure for electric vehicles but won't subsidize their actual production, he said.
The automotive industry accounts for almost third of the Czech economy, which is production base for carmakers including Volkswagen's Skoda Auto.
Babis, who's aiming for re-election next month, is prioritizing protecting national interests and being at the forefront of EU policy making.
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