Prime Minister Sobotka on his cabinet’s first year in office

An end of the year survey conducted by STEM/MARK rating the performance of the Czech coalition government indicates that half of Czechs think Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s cabinet is doing a good job. And a survey conducted by the MEDIAN agency suggests that for the first time in five years Czechs are looking to the future with optimism. So how does the prime minister himself see his cabinet’s first year in office? We have the highlights of his New Year’s interview for Czech Television.

Bohuslav Sobotka, photo: Filip Jandourek

When Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka took office eleven months ago his position was far from strong. He had just survived an attempted coup within his own party and had a cool relationship with President Miloš Zeman who favored the rival faction within the Social Democrats. Moreover many regarded him as a wimp who would play second fiddle to Finance Minister Andrej Babiš, a billionaire businessman whose ANO party came a close second in the general elections and who was expected to throw many a spanner in the works of the Social Democrats’ socially-generous policy programme.

Almost a year later, the Social Democrat prime minister is holding his own. And in a New Year’s interview for Czech Television Mr. Sobotka said much had been achieved in the past year.

“I would say it is a year in which the country drew a deep breath; a year that revitalized the economy and revitalized optimism among the public; that it gave people greater trust in politics and a feeling that it is worth going to the polls because positive change can happen. In the coming year we want to push ahead with the economic changes that we started. I also think that the past year brought an improvement in how the Czech Republic is perceived by its allies in Europe; as an EU member that does not automatically criticize everything to do with integration but is capable of communicating as well as defending its national interests. I think we have also done well in NAT0, shown that we are ready to fulfill our commitments, have finally made a decision to increase defense spending and stabilize the Czech army.”

Miloš Zeman, photo: Filip Jandourek

Among the problems that the cabinet faced in terms of communication with the outer world was the frequent discrepancy between the government’s foreign policy line and the stands voiced by President Milos Zeman. Although under the Czech Constitution it is the government which sets the country’s foreign policy, the prime minister admitted that the discord in views presented was a setback for the country and expressed the hope that regular consultations with the head of state on foreign policy issues would improve the situation.

Asked to say what his government had done for the country in the past year Mr. Sobotka emphasized the change of fiscal policy towards greater investment in the economy in view of creating new jobs and boosting consumer spending, the creation of a 10 percent VAT rate for medicines, baby food and books, more money spent on social welfare and an increase in wages in the public sector which all together had boosted trust in the economy and optimism in the future. However he stressed that there was still plenty of work ahead in fulfilling the coalition’s policy programme.

“We have to improve our performance in drawing EU funds –that goes hand in hand with economic growth and employment. We need to push for more transparent financing and crack down on tax evasion, we need to approve a law on social housing which the country still lacks, simplify procedures relating to construction which would spur big construction projects and we also want to approve a new energy law in the first half on this year.”

Photo: European Commission

Another task which lies ahead of the centre-left coalition government is an overhaul of the county’s public administration system. The changes are outlined in the civil service law approved late last year but the task of creating a depoliticized and professional public administration is likely to be fraught with problems. Interest in the brand new position of “super-bureaucrat”, a deputy to the interior minister who would be in charge of public administration is scant – the first unsuccessful open competition for the post attracted only three applicants ready to give it a try.