Ex-prime minister and former ČSSD politician Bohuslav Sobotka has not spoken much to the media since ending his political career. Now he spoke with lawyer and lobbyist Radek Pokorný and journalist Ondřej Koutník in their new podcast Klub rváčů regarding his political experiences.
Miloš Zeman always, when he had the opportunity to make a decision, made a pro-Russian decision. I don’t remember a moment in his career, the attitude of the president and the like, when he would simply have made a different decision than being pro-Russian,” said Bohuslav Sobotka, who now works at BTL, a medical technology company, in the Fight Club podcast.
From left Ondřej Koutník, Radek Pokorný and Bohuslav Sobotka
“Miloš Zeman associated with people who represented the Russian system. I am talking, for example, regarding the conference on the Greek island of Rhodes, which was organized by people who served Putin, who gathered political support for him. Over time put him in the cohort of useful idiots within Europe, which created space for the expansion of Putin’s policy. For Putin’s policy, which he established in Russia and where he is trying to restore the strategic influence of the former Soviet Union,” said the former prime minister. “At every opportunity, in response to the Russian occupation of Crimea and the de facto covert intervention in the east of Ukraine, Miloš Zeman brought up the topic of lifting anti-Russian sanctions,” criticized Sobotka.
You can find the new Fight Club podcast here
Zeman grew into the opposition contract
It has been known for a long time that the relationship between Sobotka and Zeman was not exactly warm. Sobotka did not vote for Zeman even in the presidential election in 2003. “It was the experience of how Miloš Zeman governed, what his personnel policy was, what was happening once morest the background of everything I found out as finance minister. A series of relationships that were built up there in favor of some private interests that had to be broken, were related to the opposition treaty.” explains the position. If Zeman had become president at that time, according to Sobotka, it would have led to the fact that “Miloš Zeman would once once more take Social Democracy from the position of president, install his own prime minister and we would go back to the opposition treaty system.”
How did he manage with Andrej Babis? “Andrej Babiš is not used to respecting authorities, that is, except for himself. I had to constantly fight with him to enforce our program, the will of the prime minister. It was not a simple coalition partner. He didn’t pay much attention to government affairs and all that stuff. He was mostly opposed to what we advocated, so that he later signed up for it and actually appropriated it in the media. It was a tactic for which we did not find a recipe during four years and, following all, even my successors at the head of the ČSSD,” says the ex-prime minister in the podcast.
Reader’s letter: Miloš Zeman did not oppose the communist regime. He was a part of it
Opinions
Newstream reader Petr Skalský responded to Jana Havligerová’s latest comment evaluating the political era of Miloš Zeman. According to him, there are many mystifications surrounding Zeman. Maybe he’s an intellectual. “He never was and never might be. He was always part of the system and his engine was only the desire for power,” writes Skalský.
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Pavel Šporcl: Top music is like top sport. It is not possible without persistence and passion
Newstream TV
A violinist who can turn even the biggest music skeptics into cheering spectators with his playing. And that includes those who usually feel like fish out of water at the sound of a violin. This is musical virtuoso Pavel Šporcl. He was able to enthuse hundreds of young people for classical music. You would never have known regarding this genre otherwise.
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Newstream CLUB magazine
How to create a legacy for future generations? The third issue of newstream CLUB magazine, which is currently being published, offers answers from the business world, as well as prominent personalities of social life.
On the cover of the business-lifestyle quarterly is František Kinský, a legendary nobleman, who tells how in his family not property is inherited, but responsibility and service.
The stars of the spring issue are among others Silke Horáková (Albatross), Ludek Sekyra (Sekyra Group), Zbyněk Frolík (Linet) or architect Václav Aulický or an artist Milan Knížak.
The magazine deals with the topics of long-term investments, the transfer of property within family clans, traditional Czech brands or how developers together with architects change the face of cities for many centuries.
The magazine provides inspiring reading that is intended to motivate readers to try their profession or hobby create things with a more lasting vision.
It is available in the PNS i network online. Newly also in electronic form in our e-shop.
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