Mr. Prime Minister, how do you perceive the latest epidemic data? The number R dropped to 1.1, the number of infected is high, but also stagnant.
I am a mild optimist, but it is true that the mobility data are still not good compared to spring.
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I want to call on people again to abide by all government measures and to limit their movements. In order to go to work as much as possible, shop or go to nature with their family and otherwise they were at home.
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Do you think as the chairman of the ANO Faltýnek club, which went on a trip to Spain?
It is not forbidden to travel abroad, but you are right that it was not right. Mr. Faltýnek has already resigned from the position of the first vice-president YES and his fate will be decided by the deputies at the head of the club. Anyway, the campaign that has now run around him is coming to an end. He made a mistake, apologized, resigned, and I don’t understand why the media continues to hunt him down.
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You don’t really see anyone else leading a club instead. It is so?
It doesn’t matter to me if he likes me or not
Andrej Babiš about Jan Blatný
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How will you cooperate with the new Minister of Health Blatný, who signed the Petition of a Million Moments for your resignation?
I have engaged the Minister regardless of his political opinion. It doesn’t matter to me if he likes me or not. I am glad that he nodded at the offer and that he decided quickly, basically within two hours of coming from Brno to the Government Office. I think we have a very good working relationship.
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The first offer to become Minister of Health was given to Professor Štěrba, the head of the University Hospital in Brno, and he recommended me to associate professor Blatný. I also considered the head of the Olomouc University Hospital, Professor Havlík, but in the end I decided that it would not be best to change the director during the second wave.
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Are you in conflict with the Deputy Prime Minister and head of the CSSD Hamáček due to the income tax after the abolition of the super-gross wage? You want 15 percent for most employees for two years, Hamáček wants 19 percent permanently and 23 percent for high-income, as is the case in the government program. Why can’t you agree?
After a month of negotiations on the budget, Mr Hamáček and I spoke together at a press conference on 28 August, announcing that we were extremely proposing to reduce income tax for most employees to 15 percent.
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The message was clear: to support employees and thus the economy for two years. And because we wanted to unify taxes, 19 percent would mean a higher tax for self-employed people, who now pay 15 percent. In addition, it would allow other parties to say clearly during the parliamentary election campaign what will happen to taxes.
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Are you proposing this because you know very well that it will not work out in the House and that you will therefore look good?
How did you find out? Right now is the time to give employees more money and start the economy, to start consumption. I was counting on our agreement being valid, so I don’t know what soc. dem. plans.
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Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to agree with the ODS, which is also in favor of 15 percent? You could push it together in the House, your clubs have a total of 101 votes.
I want to keep the word that Mr Hamáček and I had. I will still have to talk to the President about this, there is no point in speculating.
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Arguments of soc. dem. they are weird, they’ve never cared about debt before. They never wanted to save
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Hamáček proposes to increase the tax rebate per taxpayer from CZK 24,840 to CZK 27,240 per year. Isn’t it more logical to target low- and middle-income groups?
This discount would certainly not bring more money to employees than a 15 percent tax reduction for all the employees I propose. This will give them more in absolute terms, which is also illustrated by the fiscal impact.
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In addition, my proposal will not place an additional tax burden on self-employed persons. Contrary to the original intention contained in the program statement, Mr Hamáček’s parliamentary proposal does not introduce the possibility of deducting insurance premiums. This means that taxation of entrepreneurs will increase by four percentage points. A discount of 200 crowns per month will not bring a counterbalance. For employees, then, the intended effect of a more significant start of consumption, which I mentioned, will not occur.
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What if Hamáček’s turnover is prosaic – the country cannot afford further debt because the economic situation is not developing well.
But this is next year’s budget. Arguments of soc. dem. they are weird, they’ve never cared about debt before. They never wanted to save, Sobotka conjured a debt of 400 billion for the boom, and the right even 680 billion. And what happened to that money, who knows.
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In 2013, 382.8 billion went to pensions and the average pension was 10,913 crowns. Next year, 536.8 billion will go to pensions and the average pension will be 15,336 crowns, an increase of 49 percent. The self-employed received 50 billion, and a total of 200 billion went to support programs for companies, sole traders and employees. Everyone can see where we’re pumping the money.
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During the reign, the right disappeared into a black hole, almost did not help companies and even reduced people’s salaries and pensions. Our government is transparent, we invest money in people. This is the new right – wing bloc that has joined (ODS, People ‘s Party and TOP 09 – pozn. red.), which subverted our country and who is hungry for it to regain power. Yes, we are in debt, but everyone can clearly see what the money is going for and why we are doing it.
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But you are proposing a further relaxation of the budgetary rules. Does this mean that you have completely resigned your budgetary responsibility?
We need this because of the 2022 budget. From 2023, we will reduce debt in the same way as in 2014-2019. Measures like this are being taken all over the world, and the debt is not being raised by the government, but by the covid, Mr Editor. If we do not do this, we will seize the whole economy and eventually the situation will be even worse. But with all that, the state of our public finances is one of the best in the EU. Government debt in 2013 was 44.5 percent of GDP, in 2019 it was 30.2 percent and this year it is estimated at 39.4 percent.
We can afford the debt not only because I have been reducing the state debt for years, but also because I have enforced EET, control reports, I have broken down carousel shops and the tax haven in Prague, etc. And our debt is still lower than when I joined in 2014. Ministry of Finance.
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The economic rule is that in a crisis, states can borrow in the short term to overcome the crisis. I note here that every fiscally expansive amendment, both mine and that of Mr Hamáček, but also any opposition, is linked to a greater relaxation of the fiscal rules contained in my proposal. It will not work without this, unless we want to violate Czech and European legislation. In short, it is not possible to say A in this matter without saying B.
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By the end of the year, the government proposed the payment of wage compensation contributions from the Antivirus program. Why maintain employment artificially when the conflict with reality has to come?
We would have reacted differently if the second wave had not come. There was less and less interest in Antivirus, in September it was used by 6121 companies for 73 thousand employees for a total of 415 million. The fact that interest was declining is a good sign that the economy has returned to normal. In the first wave, the problem was mainly with car manufacturers, which did not have sales, today the situation is different.
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We want to let the program run by the end of the year, meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Havlíček will come up with a new strategy that will address the restart of the economy, industrial transformation, digitization and more and more. It is now up to the government to prepare for the post-conflict period. Invest in economic change, and especially in education, which has suffered the most from the pandemic. I keep saying that our children are the future of this country.
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The Communists are asking you to transfer 10 billion of the planned 13 billion increase in the military budget for next year to the budget reserve. Will you retreat from the KSČM?
It was the corona crisis that showed how important the army is. We can’t have old cars and helicopters, our soldiers deserve the best equipment. The budget will stand it.
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So who do you want to approve the budget with, if you have relied on the KSČM so far?
We’ll see, we haven’t started negotiations in the House yet.
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