27/12/2022
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"Is this politeness? A mockery of people!" Jan Veleba settled accounts with Fiala et al. For Zeman. And also for | ParlamentniListy.cz – politics from all sides<

The selection of awardees on the occasion of the October 28 celebration has been the target of criticism from some quarters in recent years. When you look at this year's awardees, what do you think?

I am looking forward to seeing the ceremonial act in nature in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle, presented by the President of the Republic, Miloš Zeman, this time on New Year's Day, January 1, 2022, as announced by the President. In the past, I had the opportunity to be present in the Spanish Hall and perceive the unforgettable atmosphere, where our statehood, our history literally breathes on you and everything is crowned by the speech of Mr. President - without paper, without a single note, without a reading device, everything from the head - that is a truly unforgettable experience. So, I'm sorry, but until then I would refrain from commenting on the awardees, except perhaps for one. But please ask.

You name but one... Among those who received the award is the first cosmonaut Remek. There was talk of awarding Vladimír Remek as early as 2018. Is that true? Why did it not happen then?

Poll

Do you regret the breakup of Czechoslovakia? (We ask from 28 October 2021)

I regret 74% I don't regret 21% I don't know / I don't care 5% voted: 27586 people Yes, in the case of Vladimír Remek, I am glad to be able to comment. In 2018, I finished my term in the Senate, I did not seek a new one, I communicated this intention to the media a year in advance and I kept my promise. But what I and my colleagues from our senatorial Club of Independent Senators (KNS), of which I was the chairman, strove for was the approval of the proposal for a state award for our first cosmonaut Vladimír Remek to the President of the Republic by the full Senate. That was directly offered at the time. My colleague Václav Homolka prepared a proposal precisely, which he discussed in this committee as a member of the Committee for Education, Science, Culture and Human Rights. The response was positive, the intention to propose Vladimír Remek for an award by the President of the Republic was accepted, no one expressed a negative opinion. The proposal was then submitted to the Senate's Standing Committee for the Awarding of State Honors in due time, and the proposer was fellow senators Václav Homolka and Jaroslav Doubrava. Both were elected to the Senate repeatedly, which is evidence of the support of the citizens.

Former senators at the meeting. Photo: archive of J. Veleb

This was followed by a discussion in the organizational committee of the Senate, there was not a single comment here either, and then our proposal went to the plenary meeting of the Senate.

I assumed, together with my colleagues from the KNS, a smooth course and recommendation of the proposal to the President of the Republic. Judge with me: Vladimír Remek was the first cosmonaut outside of the constellation of the USSR and the USA, it was the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, and Remek came from a Czech-Slovak marriage – father a Slovak general, mother a Moravian. It was the 40th anniversary of Vladimir Remek's flight with Gubarev, Vladimir was celebrating his 70th birthday. Furthermore, Remek, as a member of the European Parliament, was instrumental in placing the European navigation system Galileo in the Czech Republic.

But what was our surprise when, behind the scenes, the then chairman of the ODS senatorial club, Miloš Vystrčil, schemed to reject our proposal. A proposal to honor a person, a cosmonaut, who made our country famous, which was only the third in the world, after the great powers of the USSR and the USA, which gave the world a cosmonaut! He stuck out and did so without warning, insidiously and, let's not hesitate to use the popular assessment, according. He did not hesitate to resort to lies that the proposed Vladimír Remek is still a member of the KSČM and that he is politically active. Neither was true, but senators from ODS, TOP 09, KDU-ČSL and mayors plus 3 ČSSD senators took care of sinking our proposal!

However, I would like to highlight how the then chairman of the Senate, Jarda Kuber, reacted to Vystrčil's behind-the-scenes action. Before the vote, he left the hall and told us that he could not vote against Vladimir! So much in a nutshell, this is the current president of the Senate, elected by 8144 votes, Miloš Vystrčil. I consider him to be a man with a considerable absence of character who does not hesitate to use any meanness when he feels the opportunity. He did it perfectly with the sick president. A normal decent person will visit the sick person, the political hyena will use the health indisposition to discredit and prepare his liquidation. The idea that the Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament has such qualities is terrifying, but commonplace and seemingly normal for today's times. But when I read the posts on social networks, I have to state with hope that time will not take the people, the silent majority, and the masterminds of such meanness will wait...

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Is it true that then, in the same year that the award for Vladimír Remek was considered, a proposal was made to include Zdena Mašínová, the sister of the well-known Mašín brothers, among the awardees?

Yes, it is true, and at the time it was part of Vystrčil's intrigue, dropping the proposal for the state award of Vladimír Remek with a simple calculation - Mašínová was not approved for the state award by the full Senate, and this served as a reason for Vystrčil to reject our proposal for Remek.

Photo gallery: - Misty Vítkov

Speaking of which, how do you evaluate the activities of the Mašín brothers over time? At this point, the Czech nation is once again divided in opinion. Someone calls them "murderers", someone celebrates them. For example, in the theater whose director is Jan Hrušínský, he presents the play "Mašíni"...

Thus, principal Hrušínský is more of a political activist of the type of mayor Novotný from Řeporyj than an actor and theater owner. I personally spoke about the Mašíns several times when I was in active politics, at the moment, I'm sorry, I don't want to do that anymore. À propos, any conditioning of the vote for the proposal to award the cosmonaut Vladimír Remek, who made our small country famous around the world, with the support of the proposal for Mašíny gives no logic and is nonsense. Moreover, our small senatorial club was not decisive for the approval of the Mašín proposal.

Let's go back to the national holiday, President Zeman could not address the nation on October 28 this year. However, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš still spoke. What do you think of his speech? Words of praise were also heard from the political scene. For example, ODS leader Fiala stated that: "It's good that Andrej Babiš stepped back from his usual confrontational style on our national holiday. Society is divided, there is a need to return decency and respect for other opinions to politics, voters have clearly expressed themselves in favor of a change in political style and culture"...

I rate the speech of Andrej Babiš on October 28 from the balcony of Kramář's villa above Prague as pragmatic, clearly structured in content, optimistic, with faith in the capabilities of our nation, in short, a good speech. I think he gave a glimpse of his other face, which represents a statesman with the ambition to enter the presidential elections. But to return to your question, where you quote ODS leader Petr Fiala about the need to return decency and respect for other opinions to politics, and that the voters have clearly expressed themselves in favor of changing the political style and culture... I will take it from the end. First of all, voters clearly expressed themselves in favor of the ANO movement, and after eight years they continued to support it massively - 27.3%, which is more than twice the support of other parties. For the second million voters gave their vote to the parties that ended up outside the Parliament and which are definitely not supporters of both coalitions. And thirdly, we have to wait to see what the coalition of five will show. The first acts are already here. Political companions of Fiala et al. they dishonor the sick president, furthermore, they refused to stop the increase in salaries and next year politicians' salaries will increase by 6.1%! Is that decency and a change in political style? No, that's mocking people.

Ex-president Klaus also gave a speech in connection with October 28. What can we say about his words that "the Czech Republic is once again standing at a key crossroads where everything is at stake"? Do you feel that way too? And in what sense?

I feel exactly the same way and I have serious concerns about further developments, or rather the defense of the interests of the Czech Republic. If Petr Fiala is prime minister, and it doesn't have to be like that at all, then we will become an obedient executor of the EU's dictates. Moreover, I do not think that a bland professor of political science, with so far the only "Antibabiš" program, would be suitable to lead the government at the time of the onset of an unprecedented economic, social and health crisis. In short, he's not up to it, and people won't be interested in the "Antibabiš" program. When I turn to my field, agriculture, processes begin here that will be felt by every citizen in the near future. The processes that will be chained, the beginning is a dramatic increase in the price of energy, especially natural gas. It will cause a significant increase in the price of fertilizers, transport, an increase in the price of agricultural production with a simultaneous reduction in the volume of production and the end of expensive food, a further decrease in our self-sufficiency and an increase in imports. It will be true that whoever controls the food controls the world. I do not wish for this development, at the head of the Agrarian Chamber, together with my colleagues, I actively fought against this trend already in the nineties. It was nothing valid, world capital has its own laws and mercilessly crushes everything that stands in its way. I will give three numbers - even in 1993, the Czech Republic's agricultural foreign trade balance was positive, namely plus 779 million crowns. Last year 2020, we achieved a respectable deficit of minus 36.7 billion crowns, the year before even 47.2 billion crowns! Food is imported to us from half way around the world and there is a slowdown at home, no one notices it, everything is covered by the curtain of "Antibabiš", and now the "Green deal for Europe" will come and further reduction of production for our country. This is insanity, and Václav Klaus is right about it, it starts to be about everything, and using the example of basic human needs, i.e. food, I tried to indicate the connections, which I will end with a simple premise. If the borders were closed during the developing pandemic, then we will not have anything to eat. This is not science fiction, it can happen.

Photo gallery: - Klaus' speech in Míčovna

Václav Klaus also criticized the policy of Brussels, which, according to him, pursues goals other than freedom, prosperity and raising the standard of living of the European population. Is right?

Václav Klaus pleasantly surprised me. On the one hand, with his deep humanity shown to the ailing President Miloš Zeman and his uncompromising opinion on the "political zero" of Miloš Vystrčil, as he said, and on the entire Senate in general, and on the other hand, with his pregnant evaluation of this particular time and especially of the EU and its institutions. When I return to the "Green Deal", the goal of which is climate neutrality by 2050, without carrying out impact studies, I must state that it is really a dictate of closed and materially well-secured elites, not unlike the once closed and well-secured Kremlin elites. Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the European Commission entrusted with the dictates of green ideology, a historian of French literature by qualification, is a politician who cannot see the ends of his actions. And if the possible prime minister, political scientist Petr Fiala, is of the opinion that there is no point in discussing the Green Deal, but that it should be used, then as Václav Klaus said, we are at a crossroads and everything is at stake.

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