The Czech Foreign Minister’s Anti-European Turn
Vít Dostál
/ Ed. 25. 3. 2017
Zaorálek has shown that he is more a CSSD leader of the Moravia-Silesia region than a foreign minister.
In a recent interview with Czech daily Hospodářské noviny, Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek went against EU institutions – virtually every one of his answers was a complaint. Moreover, he suggested that free movement of the labour force should be regulated (read: limited).
Yet he was conciliatory on one issue: he said very clearly that he is not interested in conflict with Miloš Zeman and will not criticise him. After this interview 1, it is also clear that he has no reason to do so.
“The Czech Republic’s opinion on important issues has not been heard at all. And when we have occasionally had the chance to say something, it did not make much sense. Today we are considered dunderheads who do not really know what they want,” the Foreign Minister stated in a commentary entitled “Let’s Wake Up our Foreign Policy” when he assumed his post in 2014. 2
Yet under Zaorálek, Czech foreign policy has reached precisely this point. The Social Democrats swore that with their arrival, after years of ODS rule, Czech foreign policy would see a big pro-European turn. However, this did not happen.
The full article is available here.
