Just like Karel Havlíček, another prominent face of the ANO movement, Alena Schillerová was recently taken aback by the circumstances surrounding talks between the government and MPs about Czech security. ANO refused to attend the initial meeting and didn’t show up for the extraordinary parliamentary session that it itself had called.
So what actually happened?
It all started when Petr Fiala convened a government meeting where he had his ministers approve a timeline for gradually increasing defence spending to three percent of GDP. But since the plan involves raising the budget by 0.2 percent annually until 2030 – and his rule is likely to end this year – journalists rightly started asking why he hadn’t discussed it with us first, as the strongest opposition party. Only after that did we receive an invitation. That’s not fair negotiation – that’s media theatre. And we refused to take part in it.
Is that why you then called for the extraordinary session yourselves?
Yes. We wanted to make it clear to the public that defense is an unquestionable and long-term priority for us. But that didn’t suit the four-party coalition. To block that scenario, they made the session classified at the last moment. They even caught the president off guard. So again, we naturally refused to be part of this undignified charade. And even the Pirates, who stayed, admitted that nothing truly confidential was discussed.
What would you have said at that session?
My goal was to reach an agreement that a predetermined sum of money cannot be the goal in and of itself. The first step must be clear goals, a strategy, and a concrete vision for developing the army. Only based on that does it make sense to talk about funding – with an emphasis on transparent tenders and efficient use of every crown. Because if the only goal becomes spending as much money as quickly as possible, the result will be overpriced purchases of unnecessary equipment and contracts via middlemen who buy something for a billion and sell it to the state for two. We’ve seen that before – and it’s clear that some in the SPOLU coalition are nostalgic for those times.
If you end up in government after the autumn elections and become finance minister again, how do you see the future of defense funding?
When we took over in 2014, the defense budget was only 41 billion crowns – less than one percent of GDP. That was the legacy of Petr Nečas’s ODS-led government, in which a certain Mr Fiala was a very contented minister. At the time, NATO’s secretary general even had to send a note warning that Czechia was behaving like a freeloader. Over the next eight years, we increased the defense budget every year until it reached 93.5 billion – more than double. And if necessary, we’re naturally prepared to continue increasing it in the coming years. I don’t have the ambition to tell soldiers what equipment Czechia should or shouldn’t buy. But one thing I do know for sure: just like you can’t scare off a burglar from your home with a hypothetical dog that will be born in ten years, you don’t deter a war aggressor with a down payment on fighter jets that won’t arrive until today’s first-graders get their ID cards.
Fears of war are rising not only in Czechia. What’s your view on that?
As a mother, grandmother, and someone who interacts daily with ordinary people across generations, of course I notice it. But I also lived nearly half my life behind the Iron Curtain and during the Cold War. I definitely don’t belong among those who were ever sympathetic to Moscow – not before the aggression against Ukraine, and even less so after it. But I also believe you don’t win wars by insulting nations – that only strengthens the aggressor and dictator. Just like you don’t win wars by hanging our enemies’ flags on body bags displayed on the Ministry of the Interior building. And I also know that a divided and antagonised society is much weaker than a society that sticks together. Where people are divided, cracks appear – and through those cracks, strength escapes. Only nations that stick together can withstand the hardest storms. That’s why I’m angry at Petr Fiala for building his campaign on smearing the ANO Movement and for lying that we don’t care about defense. I’m angry that he let his marketers put us on billboards next to Putin. I’m angry because it’s utter nonsense. Since the start of the war, we’ve stood firmly on Ukraine’s side – and we’re the only political party in the country that didn’t support Ukraine just with lapel pins on our MPs’ jackets, but with ten million crowns from our own budget and member contributions.
The election campaign is in full swing. What's your overall take on it so far?
Campaigns are media-friendly topics, but in my view, elections are decided by candidates and their work. That’s why I don’t overestimate campaigns and avoid spending time on them unless necessary – just as I don’t concern myself with polls. Our campaign essentially began when we went into opposition three and a half years ago. We set up a shadow government and began developing a positive agenda for each department. Our shadow cabinet meets every Thursday without fail. In the financial area, for example, I recently managed to uncover and block a tax package that Mr Stanjura was planning in the summer for property owners. At the start of the year, I initiated the halt of the burdensome green ESG reporting requirements for Czech companies. Now I’ve caught another measure targeting temp workers – the government wants to scrap withholding tax and force them to file tax returns. Again, I aim to stop it. A few days ago, I met with startup founders to discuss how to turn Czechia into Europe’s startup hub. I had an excellent meeting with restaurateurs who are utterly desperate because of this government, and we’re fine-tuning a program for hospitality workers together. Unlike the SPOLU coalition, which would paint Russian flags on our faces, our campaign is purely factual. Did the government raise taxes? Yes. Did it raise the retirement age? Yes. Is this the biggest price hike in 25 years? Yes. These are just facts – the results of Mr Fiala’s governance, which we’re reminding people of.
Why are you opposing the abolition of withholding tax?
I consider it an unnecessary, unfortunate, and illogical step. Filing a tax return means keeping track of deadlines, having to set up a data mailbox, paying for an accountant or tax advisor, taking on legal responsibility, and often stress. Stress that didn’t exist before, thanks to the withholding tax system. That’s why I’ve called on Minister Stanjura to remove this harmful proposal from the bill. We’ll fight in parliament for students, temp workers and those on agreements – and we’re prepared to filibuster if necessary. And because the proposal is sneakily hidden in an otherwise acceptable bill on unified employer reporting, there’s a risk that the entire piece of legislation will fall apart due to this one malicious point.
CV BOX
Alena Schillerová (born March 18, 1964, in Brno) is an MP for the ANO 2011 movement and former minister of finance.
She obtained a law degree from the Masaryk University in Brno. She went on to work at the Brno-Country Financial Office, later becoming the director.
She was the special deputy minister of finance for taxation and tariffs, starting in 2016. In 2017, she was appointed minister of finance, which was a position she held until last year's election, since which she has been an MP. She is also the vice-chair of the ANO 2011 movement as of this February.
