Faith and Hope of former Christian Democrat Kalousek

27. 9. 2010 / Karel Dolejší

Former Christian Democrat (now TOP 09) Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek, alone in the studio set of the public television Sunday political talk show Otázky Václava Moravce (Václav Moravec`s Questions), showed the leftovers from his credo, declaring: "I firmly hope that there won't be a general strike". Besides that, he went on to explain how it is simply a necessity to put the public finances in order and that he wouldn't turn back from his planned budget cuts just like that.

As with any religious belief, even Kalousek's belief in the need of slimming down of expenses is based on faith instead of rationality. How else to explain the fact that he brandishes budget numbers as arguments, notwithstanding that union leader Jaroslav Zavadil unequivocally declared that the trigger for the possible general strike would be the curtailing of workers` rights in the new Labour Code? Rights which cost nothing to the governments` budget? How much can the State save, exactly, when, as a consequence of firing civil servants, many would become dependant on social benefits, perhaps even forcing the government to introduce food stamps, like in the U.S. or Russia? And have to then deal with other such social pathologies in different chapters of the public finances?

Once we let go of the pointless and naive expectation that the (Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg's) Treasury Lord Guardian wanted to present rational arguments to the viewers, the analysis of the rest of his performace gets tremendously easier, because it is only necessary to openly express the hidden intentions, which are in actuality behind the mixing statements around the new Labour Code.

And here we find ourselves just before the finish line, where, already with open arms, awaits us the sentence: "Boo...boo... the children-eater Reds will come catch you..."

Well, I think people won't buy that. It would be easier for Kalousek to enter Heaven through a needle's hole...

Vytisknout

Obsah vydání | Sobota 10.12. 2016