KDU-ČSL MP Jiří Horák is not only a politician, but also a sociologist. His focus is on the development of society and politics as a social phenomenon. This certainly comes in handy in his work on many occasions. In addition to “high” politics, as mayor of a town of around seven thousand inhabitants, he also knows the “small” world of local politics.
When you were heading to the Chamber of Deputies five years ago, you said that as a mayor you encountered problems that could not be solved at the municipal level. Have you actually managed to remove some of those barriers?
After those five years, I have to say that it is an eternal, never-ending struggle. With some things, you feel that you have managed to move them forward and improve them, while with others the situation has actually deteriorated. For example, the preparation and permitting processes for the construction of transport infrastructure have become significantly more efficient and faster. And it is worth mentioning that both political camps, the coalition and the opposition, have contributed to this over time. When it comes to the lack of affordable housing, however, we prepared a subsidy programme intended for those who cannot afford housing at market prices. I think the programme was very well designed, as evidenced by the great interest from municipalities, which also prepared the relevant projects and wanted to participate in construction. Unfortunately, the current government has not fully followed up on it, so a large part of this effort will go to waste. Then there is, for example, the Building Act. It is obvious that the building permit process needs to be significantly accelerated. From this perspective, hopefully the new law will bring improvements. On the other hand, it also contains measures that I consider inappropriate, and I am not afraid to say that I even see a risk of corruption in some of them. For example, I completely fail to understand the transfer of decisions on changes to zoning plans from the municipal council, whose meetings are public and scrutinised by the opposition, to non-public meetings of the city executive council, and I see this as a major problem. These decisions often concern changes that can increase land prices by tens of millions. Such decision-making should be completely transparent.
You are vice-Chair of the Defence Committee. Before the summer holidays, you discussed the army’s staffing levels and the recruitment of new soldiers. What is the situation?
The situation has improved significantly this year. The army planned to recruit 1,800 new soldiers through direct recruitment and managed to meet this target during the first quarter alone. In my view, this is a clear result of measures introduced by the previous government, which made military service significantly more attractive. We increased soldiers’ salaries, by a total of fifteen per cent for the lower ranks, at least doubled the housing allowance, expanded recruitment and retention bonuses and simplified the recruitment process itself. It is now important to continue this trend, because the army’s staffing levels remain one of its greatest challenges.
Are you satisfied with the amount of funding the government wants to allocate to defence?
To put it into perspective for readers – the required two per cent of GDP today represents approximately CZK 180 billion. But if we talk about the government’s priorities, which include, for example, building a genuinely effective air defence system, this area alone may require investment of around CZK 350 billion. Two per cent of GDP may therefore serve primarily to maintain current capabilities, but given that our army has been underfunded for a long time, it cannot be sufficient for the modernisation it needs. Moreover, when we look at the security situation in the world – uncertainty about the future reliability of the United States, China’s growing assertiveness, instability in the Arab world or the long-term unpredictability of Russia – all these factors should warn us against underestimating the security situation. Many may argue that the Czech army alone cannot achieve anything anyway. But we are part of NATO. If our allies are also well prepared, and I believe that the Scandinavian countries, Poland and the Baltic states, for example, certainly do not underestimate the current security situation, together we can form a very strong defence alliance.
As a sociologist, you focus, among other things, on historical comparative sociology and the sociology of politics. When you look at today’s society and politics, do you see patterns that we already know from the past?
I have to say that some patterns really do repeat themselves. Periods of prosperity, economic growth and political stability are usually followed by periods of stagnation and instability, which can bring a rise in populism and radicalisation. At present, we can see how a good period was interrupted by Covid, the war in Ukraine, the subsequent energy crisis and the failure to manage massive migration to Western Europe from culturally distant regions, particularly the Arab world. What I also consider very dangerous is the power of social media algorithms. Because of them, society is becoming increasingly fragmented, people live in their own social bubbles and exchange views with one another less and less. Unfortunately, the same is true in politics. Politicians increasingly speak primarily to their own voter bubbles, but engage in less and less genuine discussion with one another across ideological divides. The imaginary agora is therefore emptying, and I consider that a major problem. A mature democracy needs a genuine exchange of views and the ability to listen even when we fundamentally disagree.
You have also studied the secularisation of society. Isn’t secularisation itself one of the reasons why KDU-ČSL has difficulty appealing to a broader section of voters today? And can it ever become a ten-per-cent party again?
I think so. Czech society is highly secularised, and the causes can be found in our history and in the way Czech national identity was formed. Unlike in other countries, where the respective church was the driving force behind the national revival, for example the Catholic Church in Poland, things developed differently in our homeland. During the formation of the national revival in the second half of the 19th century, the predominantly Catholic population paradoxically adopted a fairly strong anti-Catholic national ethos. This happened more or less by chance, as a consequence of Palacký’s interpretation of Czech history. But that is another story. Secularisation was therefore significantly influenced by the Czech national movement and by the sentiment of the newly established Czechoslovakia, when people left the Catholic Church. Forty years of communist rule continued this development. To this day, this still attaches a certain label to KDU-ČSL in the eyes of some voters, even more so in Bohemia than in Moravia, and the very name of the party may have negative connotations for them. However, I am convinced that centrist politics based on responsibility, as well as solidarity, together with a Christian cultural identity, can be inspiring and thought-provoking for some voters even today, especially in a time of instability and uncertainty.
CV BOX
Jiří Horák (born 24 July 1984) is a KDU-ČSL MP, former Vice-Chair of the party and Mayor of Bučovice.
He studied sociology and andragogy with a specialisation in human resources management at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University Olomouc, where he passed the rigorous examination and defended his doctoral dissertation in sociology in 2014.
He served on the board of Respono, a waste management company, and subsequently, from 2019 to 2021, was a member of the board of Vodovody a kanalizace Vyškov.
He has been a member of KDU-ČSL since 2002, became a member of its national committee in 2019 and served as Vice-Chair of the party from October 2024 to April 2026.
He has been a member of the Bučovice municipal council in the Vyškov area since 2010 and has served as Mayor for more than nine years. In 2016, he was elected a member of the South Moravian Regional Council. He remained in the position until 2021, when he became a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He is Vice-Chair of the Defence Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Housing Policy and Construction.
He has enjoyed travelling since his student years, particularly to less touristy countries. He has a strong connection to South Moravia, Moravian traditions and his family roots in Vlčnov.
BUČOVICE
Jiří Horák has been Mayor of Bučovice for nine years. How does he think the town has changed during that time? “My town is very close to my heart,” he says. “When I took office, my vision was to make Bučovice a pleasant town to live in. At the time, we had a number of neglected places, and we have gradually managed to transform them. The proverbial icing on the cake will be the transformation of a former six-hectare brownfield site next to the château, right in the town centre, where new housing with a large park will now be built. And I firmly believe that next year construction will finally begin on the bypass, which we in Bučovice have been waiting decades for.”
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