Prague, Jan 28 (CTK) – The right-wing TOP 09 wants to increase the living standard, lower the taxation of labour, introduce the euro in the Czech Republic and also raise the Czech defence spending as it views the country’s EU and NATO membership as crucial, it says in its Vision 2030 document released on Saturday.
The document presents the strategy that TOP 09, now in opposition, wants to pursue until 2030.
TOP 09 chairman Miroslav Kalousek said the party wants to secure that the living standard in the Czech Republic catches up with Germany’s.
To achieve the goal, Czech society’s education level must increase in order to enhance the competitiveness of Czechs. Stability of Czech economy is important as well, Kalousek, former finance minister in 2007-2013, said.
“We want to promote the interests of the middle class, i.e. responsible people who build on their knowledge… We want to make Czech society educated, coherent, competitive and wealthy,” Kalousek said.
“The Czech worker, Czech technician, Czech scientist are not less talented than their German counterparts. If we use all the creative potential, there is no reason for our and German living standards not approximate each other during the following three decades,” Kalousek said.
The state should therefore increase the wages of teachers, reduce the taxation of labour and secure an effective collection of taxes, he said.
TOP 09 school expert and senator Jiri Ruzicka said the Czech Republic is not rich in raw materials and its prosperity depends on its capability of adapting to the chances carried by the global society.
The Czech school system must change its way of preparing students to the new situation and make them capable of tackling problems, cooperating and communicating in several world languages, Ruzicka said.
The pay of teachers must rise. Teachers should be among the best-paid state employees, he added.
To ensure the country’s economic stability, TOP 09 wants it to adopt the euro far sooner than in 2030.
The step would eliminate fluctuations of the crown and help reduce the transaction costs, TOP 09 MEP Ludek Niedermayer said.
He said it is necessary to lower the taxation of labour that mainly burdens medium-income groups of people.
Furthermore, TOP 09 wants to secure a more effective use of taxes and public money in areas where it is more effective than private sector’s investments, Niedermayer said, mentioning the need to raise the defence spending for Prague to fulfil its NATO commitments.
TOP 09 wants an e-election system to be introduced in the country in a foreseeable future.
It wants to support applied research, the development of decentralised energy industry and the construction of high-speed railways.
Based on the Vision 2030 document, the party will draft its programme for the October 2017 general election, Kalousek said.
In the latest general election in 2013, TOP 09 gained 12 percent of the vote and 26 seats in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.
Kalousek said on Saturday he wants TOP 09 to achieve a two-digit gain in the election this autumn.
Earlier this week, the STEM agency’s election model forecast a gain of only 4.6 percent of the vote for TOP 09, which is below the parliament threshold.
According to another poll, released by the CVVM agency, TOP 09 would gain about 8 percent of the vote.
“The latest poll showed that our preferences stand at 8 percent, a figure we will not satisfy ourselves with. We seek a two-digit gain and we are convinced that after the elections, we will be an important party to crucially influence political developments in the Czech Republic,” Kalousek said.
Some commentators say voices of dissatisfaction with Kalousek’s leadership have been heard in TOP 09, calling for him to leave the post of chairman.
Kalousek said such voices were sporadic and that he would convoke an extraordinary congress of the party if asked by the required number of its regional committees.
This has not happened so far, he said.
