The EU has also been trying to break the V4, but no matter what we think about PM Orbán, we must respect Hungarian voters and their decision. Unfortunately, the Czech government is acting ambiguously. Division on the vote against Hungary was exemplary. I’m afraid that Mr. Petříček is not strong enough to bring order to this chaos.
Most likely all the key EU seats will be agreed between Merkel and Macron and I fear that small states would have to consume what Germany and France served, more so once the UK leave. Thus, deeper European political integration is not in our interest, because we could be easily out voted in important matters.
Why not have the president of the European Commission from Visegrad? Decades of communism gave us a unique experience. We know how it feels to be oppressed and how an economy strangled by absurd regulations and central planning works. Western Europe and especially technocrats in Brussels often overestimate the role of a state, the more regulations the more welfare they believe.
Five years ago, member states’ leaders made a mistake and let the socialist and people’s party select the EC president. They decided to base it on election results, which led to Mr. Juncker’s, who will be leaving the EU more divided than ever and without the UK. Politicized Commission has been tried and failed, no one would choose to repeat it.
Zahradil is the vice-president of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe and has an ambition to lead his group in the 2019 elections.
