You now have a much stronger voice in Europe, says the ambassador of Portugal in the Czech Republic. What is the reputation of Czech tourists? | Czechia

Lidovky.cz: You have been on a diplomatic mission in Prague for several years. How has your view of the Czech Republic changed during that time? Is there a specific area you would like to highlight?
The change is huge, but I couldn’t have imagined it when I came here. I have in mind, in particular, the foreign policy position of the Czech Republic. You have a much stronger build than before those years, a stronger voice. Czechia is now seen in the European Union as a very responsible country that is not afraid to come up with its own agenda and even to promote it.

It would be easy to say that this change was caused by the wolf in Ukraine, it is close to you and you are reacting to it. But that’s not the whole point. Without capable politicians who promote visions in the international field, such a shift would not be possible. I think that both your government with Prime Minister (Peter) Fiala and President (Peter) Pavel did a very good job. I’ve known her for a long time, from the time we met in Brussels (Ambassador Sampaio served in 2015 and 2019 as Portugal’s deputy representative in NATO, editor’s note)and I am sure that the first President Pavel wrote a lot about this pasted image.

Even though there are still two countries in the EU, Germany and France being the largest countries, it can be said that in recent years the European Union has moved towards the entrance. It happened with you as well. According to him, this trend will continue, referring to the future division of the EU into the Western Balkans. The shift was also noticed by the organization, i.e. NATO, let’s look at the recent division of the Alliance over Finland and India.

Lidovky.cz: Changes are also taking place in your country, in Portugal, where the recent elections were held recently. With a very different result, it was not usual, when the far-right party Chega, which once used populist politics, won a significant percentage of the vote (18 percent) for the first time…