President Zeman is not visible and it benefits the country • RESPECT

President Miloš Zeman is practically invisible. He hardly shows up in public, sometimes gives a television speech or gives a short interview – and thus the overview of the state activities of the domestic president ends. From the information on the official castle website, it is possible to make some statistics of his work performance since the New Year. Not much, just formalities. It is true that the country spent a third of this year in quarantine, and it is true that Miloš Zeman is visibly weak. Nevertheless, more is expected from the head of state.

As for public events, Zeman attended ten. From the blessing of the chapel through two masses to an act of reverence in Lidice or the celebration of the anniversary of US independence. He never once attended a meeting with citizens this year, he met the only foreign politician – the new Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic. At home, at the Castle. He never went abroad for a visit. The latter can be excused by a pandemic. But on the sidelines of foreign presidential contacts, there are only five formal telephone conversations with his counterparts. Maybe with Chinese or Israeli.

As for speeches and interviews, the President did not personally speak at the open event at all once; gave four interviews, had three television speeches. However, we did not hear anything significant about the difficult situation in which the Czechia, Europe or the world found themselves in a pandemic period. They were always more against something than something. He did not forget to attack journalists, the Black lives matter event or the domestic secret service. On the other hand, at the beginning of the year he took part in the congress of the insignificant party SPOZ.

He granted three pardons, at the Castle or in Lány he officially received forty representatives of Czech society, most often Andrej Babiš – four times. He signed sixty laws, appointed a couple of judges, a rector, dismissed and appointed a minister of transport, held four workshops, and sent twenty congratulatory or condolence letters. The official website of the Castle does not reveal more about the president’s work.

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Even if we take into account quarantine and health again, it is quite a pathetic performance. The president is basically doing only what he really needs to be under the constitution. If he did not sign the laws and appoint the people whom the law requires him to appoint, we would hardly find a public clue as to what benefits this country. His meetings with politicians Andrej Babiš or Jan Hamáček are also “work for the country”, but we receive only brief and formal information about them. And we don’t even know what he was talking about with the Chinese president.

On the other hand, the mere formal presidency in the case of Milos Zeman benefits this country. Even seeking friendship with countries like China and Russia has become as formal as anything else he does. The need to push for investment from both countries to the Czech Republic has lost momentum. President Zeman’s malice is losing strength, as is his ability to promote benefits to friendly businessmen. Except for the injection for Smartwings. His desire to enforce Russian nuclear supremacy in the Czech Republic with the completion of the Dukovany bloc remained, but it will run into European Union rules that the Czechia must take into account in its laws – for example, on protection against risky foreign investments.

It would be good if we could present a whirlwind of interesting words, events, meetings, ideas or visions of the president in a similar balance. We would not have to agree with them, but they could inspire us to debate. We do not have such a president. There is a tired man sitting in the Castle (and probably more often in Lány) who can only handle formalities – and even sadder, in the case of the current president, this is the more acceptable alternative for this country.

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