close info Source: Deník zoom_in In the last senate elections, you were the clear winner in the first and second rounds, but this time it was different. Jaroslav Komínek (KSČM) won in the first round, but you narrowly escaped him in the second round. What do you think this says?
Perhaps it speaks to the fact that I communicate less, what I did in the Senate, which is a mistake. At the same time, I think that the government’s attitude towards poorer regions also has an influence on this. He says he wants to help them, but he doesn’t actually do it. As part of the anti-campaign claimed that I was actually a pro-government senator, my preferences went down with some people. That definitely has something to do with it. But it is not true that I was a pro-government senator, in a number of crucial votes I was in conflict with the government’s proposals.
Before the elections, there were rumors that the senator could not be seen in Chomutov, that Chomutov did not have support in the Senate, or that not enough work had been done. How would you react?
That it came from the anti-campaign side, because a lot of the votes on Facebook were from anonymous sites. They were not real people behind them, but artificially created accounts. It had to do with trying to discredit me in some way. On the other hand, there were also a lot of supportive voices from people who confirmed that I could be seen in the region. But it’s definitely a beacon or indicator for me that I should probably communicate better about my work in the next period.
What made you the most happy or angry before the election or during it?
What I regretted was the false campaign. The talk that I don’t go to the Senate, that I’m not there and the manipulation that I have 141 absences. People think that I was not at a meeting in the Senate 141 times, while these were individual votes, of which there are about 30 per day. So I was sorry for shifting the facts and creating different assumptions. And also the work of that strange Foundation Pravda o Voda, which spends hundreds of thousands to smear politicians who said only that their petition was not well prepared, nothing else. It certainly had an impact on the public, so these are also the votes I lost.
What pleased me was the support of many people from various fields: from associations, from the ranks of entrepreneurs. The contribution of the castellan from the Poles or people from various corners of the country was pleasant, for example. That gave me energy and I’m grateful for that. The support of the political parties was very broad, because in addition to SEN 21, I was supported by the Greens, Piráts, LES, PRO region, but actually after the first round I was also supported by ODS, TOP 09, KDU-ČSL, individual representatives of the Starosts and even individual representatives from the former ČSSD or even individuals from the KSČM.
What will your job be about in the next six years? Will it be different in any way?
I am very happy that the senator’s office in Chomutov, which functioned as a community center for meeting people and various activities, can continue. That worried me a bit. After our colleagues, the senators from the Ústí Region, with Martin Krsko, and perhaps even Governor Jan Schiller will be involved as a newly elected senator, we will continue to prepare the Act on Regions. I think that is also very important.
Perhaps the change will be in the fact that I would not also be the director of the Dvur Králové Zoo for the next six years of my mandate, I would like to leave a little earlier.
Why did you make that decision?
It’s hard. I already tried it as a member of parliament and director of the Chomutov zoo, now I was a senator and director for the next six years. For ten years, I was able to combine these functions, but it is probably true that it would be better to devote myself fully to senatorship. I’m not saying right now, but within a few years I would hand over the work in the safari park to younger people.
Could you briefly summarize the most important thing that you have achieved in your work in the Senate so far?
We have to divide it into work in the region and work in Prague. The most important thing in the region is, I think, that we provided legal advice to people who were in some kind of need. It mainly concerned social cases, social housing. That was dozens of cases where we paid a lawyer for these people. Then there is the senator’s office, which serves as a community center, support for a number of associations and organizations, where over the course of six years we gave away hundreds of thousands to support various God-loving activities. I am also very appreciative that I could be there and significantly financially support the preparation of material for the establishment of the nature park of the Middle Ore Mountains, which was announced in the past few days. I am also glad that I could be involved in some way, and I will continue to try to do so, in the preparation of the possible declaration of the Protected Landscape Area of the Ore Mountains.
As for Prague, it’s quite complicated to explain, but what I’m happy about is that when the Upper Law was amended (on the protection and use of mineral wealth, editor’s note) the proportions of the funds that are transferred changed in favor of the region . Based on the amendment of this law, more money goes to the region and less to Prague, to the state budget. This is something that we have been calling for for a long time and that we finally managed to achieve. That’s probably the most important thing. Then there is the preparation of a law that should address cohesion policy (the goal is to reduce the backwardness of the most disadvantaged regions, which includes the Ústí Region, editor’s note).
