President Pavel: Future government must define spending priorities

The next Czech government must narrow its focus to four or five key priorities, even if it means that other areas stagnate, President Petr Pavel said on CNN Prima News on Sunday. He warned that having too many priorities means having none and prevents meaningful investment. In response to NATO’s recent call for member states to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP over the next decade, Pavel named security as the top priority, followed by education and research, energy, and healthcare. Without safety, “other investments lose meaning,” he said. He also stressed that healthcare’s main problem isn’t funding, but mismanagement.