Prague, Nov 29 (CTK) – Miroslav Kalousek was elected the new leader of TOP 09, as expected, and he received support from 148 out of 171 delegates (86 percent) in a secret vote at the Czech opposition party´s congress on Sunday.
Kalousek, 54, was the only candidate for the post.
He replaced Karel Schwarzenberg, 76, who left the post for health reasons.
Schwarzenberg was elected TOP 09 honorary chairman on Saturday. Kalousek said Schwarzenberg will remain the party´s moral authority.
After Kalousek was elected new leader, Schwarzenberg said he wanted to further cooperate with the party, unlike other party chairmen who left their posts.
“I hope that we will establish a new tradition in Czech politics that the former chairman is not a bad-tempered old man who pursues those who took control of the party after him and takes revenge on them,” Schwarzenberg said, most likely hinting at President Milos Zeman and former president Vaclav Klaus.
Both former Social Democrat (CSSD) leader Zeman and former Civic Democrat (ODS) leader Klaus clashed with their parties, and they finally left them and supported other parties in elections.
Schwarzenberg said Sunday that he would keep focusing on foreign policy.
He said he would take part in TOP 09 campaigns before the regional and Senate elections due next year unless bad health prevented him to do so. Schwarzenberg did not rule out that he would run in the general election in 2017.
After his election, Kalousek supported Marek Zenisek nominated for the party´s first deputy chairman. Zenisek is the only candidate for this post, too.
In his 50-minute election speech, Kalousek said the Czech Republic is facing an unprecedented attack against free society. It is necessary to prevent the society´s oligarchisation and the rule of “a single enlightened director general” surrounded by former communist secret police officers, he said, referring to Deputy Prime Minister Andrej Babis who heads the ANO movement.
Babis is one of the richest people in the country. He owns the Agrofert chemical, agricultural and food-processing holding. In the last few years, Babis bought several influential media. He is listed among the collaborators of the Czechoslovak communist secret police StB. A Slovak court recently concluded that Babis did not deliberately collaborate, but some experts challenged the verdict.
In his speech, Kalousek warned against the imperial ambitions of Moscow. He said the Czech Republic should move towards the European Union´s “hard core.”
“Europe is far stronger than anti-Europeans think,” Kalousek said.
“The less of the EU, the more of Moscow there will be. And the more of Moscow, the more of Zemans and Babises. And the more Zemans and Babises, the less of real democracy we will have,” he said.
Kalousek said President Milos Zeman, unfortunately, made himself the leading figure of those showing xenophobic, racist and intolerant stances.
Zeman and Martin Konvicka, leader of the extremist Bloc Against Islam, were among the speakers at a Prague rally two weeks ago.
Schwarzenberg and Zeman clashed in the final round of the country´s first direct presidential election in January 2013. Zeman dubbed Schwarzenberg´s supporters “the Prague cafe.” TOP 09 criticises Zeman for his affiliation with Russia and China, his negative stance on migration and other issues.
Kalousek said the migration wave is not a fatal threat, although some present it in this way. However, the Czech Republic should not stand aside the fight against the Islamic State organisation, he added.
The Czech state has recently lost much of the credit that it gained after 1989, Kalousek said, referring to the fall of the country´s communist regime.
In the forthcoming elections, TOP 09 wants to offer capitalism for the middle class to its voters. This model has proved successful in many Western countries, Kalousek said.
He said the party must be socially sensitive. “We must avoid mistakes that I was doing. We must have more empathy for people who are concerned about their social standards,” Kalousek said, using disabled people as an example.
Kalousek introduced a lot of austerity measures when he was finance minister (2007-09, 2010-13), especially during the financial crisis. He is one of the most unpopular politicians in the country.
Kalousek said the state nevertheless must not be egalitarian such as it is in the present system of pensions, he said.
The current centre-left government of Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) recently scrapped the second pillar of the pension system thanks to which people could send part of their contributions to state pay-as-you-go pension system to private pension savings funds. The second pillar had been introduced by the government of Petr Necas (right-wing Civic Democrats, ODS) of which Kalousek was a member.
Kalousek said the state should protect and support the citizens, but not control them, and its should intervene into the economy only minimally.
