Czech President Zeman blames green fanaticism for energy crisis
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He welcomed Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s (ODS) call on Monday for the ambassadors to seek energy possibilities that had been previously overlooked.
"In my presentations, I systematically draw attention to the connection between the energy crisis and so-called green politics, although I would rather talk about green ideology, or green religion, if not green madness, than politics. What exactly does that mean?
"Similar to the search for the causes of Russian aggression in the previous point of our discussion, if we are looking for the causes of the energy crisis, I would like to draw attention to one of the essential causes, and that is the green fanaticism, whether it is called the Green Deal or whatever.
"If we look at neighboring Germany, which intends, and has not yet given up on this intention, to close its three remaining nuclear power plants, not to mention the coal-fired ones, then the balance sheet is quite simple, when a reduction in the supply of energy at a constant demand leads to an increase in the price of electricity and similarly to an increase in the price of energy raw materials.
"I would like to note that the Green Deal does not have as its only risk the closing of conventional power plants, but also, for example, a political invention called emission allowances. This means that if there was a tenfold increase in the prices of emission allowances, again, according to the well-known law of supply and demand, this had to be reflected in energy prices. And so I could go on and on.
"I'm afraid, but I won't be there anymore, where the green madness will take us. The abolition of the production of cars with internal combustion engines in 2035, perhaps with the exception of Lamborghini and Ferrari, will lead to the advent of far more energy-intensive electromobility, when we will have to build a new energy network in the form of charging stations and when electric cars with a short range and a high price will be the consumers of electricity.
"We are once again condemned to devote ourselves to a new utopia, this time a green utopia. I welcome the words of Prime Minister Fiala, when he ordered our ambassadors to look for new energy sources in the individual countries where they will operate.
"I myself, in addition to receiving a princess from the United Arab Emirates just yesterday, am organizing a meeting with the Emir of Qatar, and I hope he will bring a large business delegation with him this autumn. new energy sources.
"I myself, in addition to receiving a princess from the United Arab Emirates just yesterday, am organizing a meeting with the Emir of Qatar, and I hope he will bring a large business delegation with him this autumn. new energy sources.
"I myself, in addition to receiving a princess from the United Arab Emirates just yesterday, am organizing a meeting with the Emir of Qatar, and I hope he will bring a large business delegation with him this autumn.
This brings me to the basic task, which, in my opinion, is Czech foreign policy. Please don't play superpower. Let's not look at the central issues of our foreign policy through the lens of a great power. We would look ridiculous.
"We are a small to medium-sized country, a country where 80 percent of our gross domestic product is exports, and I have always said, even as prime minister and now as president, that the main task of our ambassadors is to take care of the promotion of our exporters in foreign markets and, on the other hand, to bring effective foreign investment in the Czech Republic.
"Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I think that, from this point of view, it is not good when some provocative gestures organized mainly by Prague municipal politicians, who are unable to manage their city well and who at the same time divert their attention to foreign policy, when these gestures complicate this task of economic diplomacy.
"Yes, in the case of the Russian Federation, business interests must give way to higher interests, that is, resistance to Russian aggression, but in the case of the People's Republic of China, we are needlessly weakening the access of our exporters to what is now the world's largest market, and I believe that this is a mistake, and this I criticized the error accompanied by big-mouthed gestures, from whatever mouth it came.
"So the solution to the energy crisis is not to succumb to the lure of the Green Deal, to pursue a sovereign foreign policy, which is precisely why I fear that some Czech politicians, for example from the ranks of the pirate party, will support proposals to vote on issues affecting our sovereignty on the basis of, albeit qualified, majority, and I think that if we are to have an independent foreign policy and an independent state, we need to prevent these attempts.
"I am in favor of the broad cooperation of European countries, but I am not in favor of the majority dictating to the minority, because, as Antonio Gramsci once said, the truth is born from the minority, and by the way, this also applies to the Green Deal.
"Allow me to conclude with a few more remarks. Of course, I have come across that Visegrad cooperation is being called into question. I find this questioning silly. I believe that the cooperation of Central European countries, which are united by the same history, is useful. A well-known example, she prevented the mandatory introduction of migration quotas.
"At that time, the Visegrad countries were also in the minority, and if the qualified majority principle had already applied then, then migrants, and now I am not talking about migrants from Ukraine, I am talking about migrants from Islamic countries, hardly compatible with our population, would have been distributed throughout Europe on the basis of some mechanical quotas.
"I am therefore in favor of maintaining and developing Visegrad cooperation despite any differences, I also value the activities of the Visegrad Cultural Fund, and on the contrary, I condemn the attacks that are directed from some places in Brussels both towards Poland, so towards Hungary. In my opinion, that aristocratic tutelage and instruction, which can of course also turn against us, is unacceptable for any sovereign country.
"Ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the day, I would like to wish you success in your work in individual destinations, to bring to the Czech Republic what it most needs, help to our exporters, and therefore a good market for our products, and effective investments with high added value a value that will further increase our economic prosperity and the standard of living of our residents. If you can do this, you will make great ambassadors.
"If you do not succeed, and I believe that it will not happen, you will leave with the feeling that, for whatever reasons, the country in which you worked did not establish a rational and correct relationship with the Czech Republic.
"So I wish you that this does not happen to you and once again I wish you full success," President Milos Zeman said. ■