Kalousek: Schwarzenberg was like a father to me. Politics today is devoid of content

Miroslav Kalousek, a great figure of Czech politics of the last decades, accepted an invitation to the Sunday discussion program Five minutes to twelve. He recalled his political companion Karl Schwarzenberg, assessed current politics and revealed how much he can swim.

Miroslav Kalousek, a politician and currently a member of the board of directors of the Veřejná zdravotno pojišťovna (VZP), was the guest of the third part of the discussion program Za five minut twelve. At the beginning of the interview, he recalled his recently deceased political companion and TOP 09 co-founder Karel Schwarzenberg.

“For me, he was one of the most important and kindest people in my life. He was also a hugely inspiring person, a moral role model. With him, the Czech Republic lost a personality for whom there is no replacement. His authority anywhere in Europe, with political representatives and other important persons, was such that his intercession often amounted to more than a few resolutions,” he declared.

“He made it a point to serve his country, regardless of whether or not he was an active politician. He was also an endlessly kind person who helped countless people when they were in trouble, and he didn’t want it to be known. “Karel was a great statesman, a great visionary, but he didn’t really enjoy administrative procedural work. We complemented each other well there,” he added.

“I dare say that he was able to shape many of us, adults. For example, in how a man should behave in serious situations in order to remain a man. I looked up to him more like a father. He was a disproportionately bigger personality than me. Although we were able to speak very openly, so there was always great respect and esteem from my side,” he confided.

According to Kalouska, the fact that they got together and created TOP 09 was partly due to chance and partly due to Jiří Paroubek, then head of the opposition ČSSD. “The meeting order in Topolánek’s government sat us next to each other, in the government and in the Chamber of Deputies, and we found that while we often have different opinions from our parties at the time, I was for the People’s Party, he was for the Greens, so we have the same opinions on the fundamental issues “, he recalled.

“That we would create our own party was at first only a joking dream. That changed when Jiří Paroubek succeeded, to his own dismay, in overthrowing Topolánek’s government in 2009. And suddenly we had a lot of time to transform our dream into a real project ,” he explained.

It is said that the former chairman of two governing parties is missing top politics. “I miss her. It can’t be otherwise. I did it for 20 years and I did it with passion and not just to make money,” he let himself be heard.

He says he doesn’t really want to go back to the House of Representatives. “What is happening there has little to do with politics, I’m afraid. Politics is a battle of ideas and arguments. Now I see more of a battle of marketing agencies and empty slogans. There is a lack of real content,” he thinks.

He says he is happy with the current government, but it could do more and better work, according to him. “I don’t want another government. I want the current one to fulfill the steps that are absolutely necessary for us to live well here and that it promised itself. But it seems that it is not capable of cleaning up the mess after Babiš’s government,” he added.

Full episode of the show:

Watch the clip from Televní noviny:

TN.cz