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The vice-chairman of the Social democracy party Lubomír Zaorálek has been in big league politics for 34 years now. He’s been faithful to one party his entire life, having joined the social democrats thirty years ago. Since the 2021 elections, he’s been experiencing something thoroughly unusual - for the first time since the November revolution of 1989, his party doesn’t have any representation in the Chamber of Deputies.
Do you believe in the speedy return of Social democracy into the big leagues?
We‘ve got three different elections ahead of us - the European, regional and parliamentary ones - and I am convinced that Social democracy has the unique opportunity to communicate to the public what kind of party it is, what its main topics and priorities are. Unlike other political parties, it has one significant advantage and asset, and that is its past. Any time it was in the government, it always fulfilled social-democratic principles and its program - it made a contribution to the growth of wages, it managed to maintain a steady level of public services, including healthcare, education, and others. Unfortunately these successes now seem insignificant through the lens of today‘s politics. We live in a world where politics the way we knew it years ago doesn‘t work, and is giving way to more powerful players. Large multinational corporations and different oligarchic groups now determine the economic politics of a state, including taxes, which impacts every single citizen. This trend doesn‘t just concern our country, but the entirety of Europe - Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel or Josep Borrell are second-grade European politicians, incapable of facing the current development of the world.
Could you be a little more specific?
Take for example the Green Deal for Europe. Let me point out that there‘s no disputing if we should be fighting climate change or not, but rather how we should fight it. Right now, the Green Deal isn’t a social project, but purely a business one, successfully making money for a small group of people. And they are not everyday citizens. For example in Germany, according to the experts I had the chance to talk to, about 10 percent of the richest people benefit from this project. I am of the opinion that favoring one narrow group of the populace this way is unbearable, and changes must be brought to bear after the European elections. That‘s why it‘s important to talk about, and that‘s why it is also one of the key topics of the Social democracy party in the European elections. After all this example only underscores the growing gap and increasing differences between the individual layers of society. There are a number of chosen ones, who are a part of some sort of an elite, and as such have access to important information, technologies, financial flow, all the while the majority of society grows poorer, becoming marginal, and finally fragmented. This state is essentially untenable, and were Social democracy incapable of naming it, then that would truly mean its end.
The European Union keeps integrating, but you talk of something more akin to social disintegration...
Once upon a time, we entered the European Union with a goal to converge with richer, more developed countries. Today, we are a witness to the exact opposite trend. Looking at wages, for example, then the same pay for the same amount of work within the Union is more or less guaranteed only for European Commissioners and deputies. Not only have we not succeeded at reaching equality, but we have stopped talking about inequality as an issue that needs addressing. The more we talk about projects, like the aforementioned Green Deal, which mostly alienates the Union from its citizens - they don't find anything helpful for their own lives in them. It‘s not about making people jealous, but alerting them that certain projects are unjust and unfair.
Is this worldview attractive to young people as well, can Social democracy engage them as well?
I‘ve recently been spending more time at universities and it comes as a surprise to me that even in the 20 to 30 age group, there’s a lot of people there who don't consider social-democratic ideas old-fashioned or anachronistic. On the contrary, as a result of current events, they consider them interesting. For reasons I cannot define, the world as it is, based on success, money and individualism is less attractive to them, and they would prefer a society of togetherness and solidarity. What was a tempting idea not so long ago, to strike out on your own and have everything in one‘s own hands, is suddenly gone.
Other parties, like the ANO movement for example, reach for Social democracy voters, right?
The ANO movement once set itself up to be a center- right or right-aligned party, but in recent years, it‘s been trying to appeal to those voters firmly on the left side of the political spectrum. I like to joke that ANO has only borrowed our voters. Borrowed, because it can never step over its own shadow. They will never want to change the tax system, or generally the model that‘s present here today and shows itself to be so unfair and supportive of social inequality. There‘s a number of things that will always stop the ANO movement in its tracks. I remember very well the joint government of the Social democracy and ANO parties, and how untouchable some topics were for them. And even though we are apparently witnessing a great battle between the ANO and ODS parties, Andrej Babiš never hid that he has always had a very good understanding with ODS, and that they would be an ideal partner in his government. So when I say that the level of public services must at the very least be maintained as is, whether I mean transport, education, or many others, I don't expect a single representative of the ANO movement to say the same.
You mentioned education, how important is it these days?
The Czech republic does not have any oil sites or mineral resources that would support its citizens for generations to come. Our greatest value is human potential, which many economists would agree with. And instead of supporting it, we let it dwindle. If you earn very little for the work you do, you don‘t feel like your work is important or has any value, and therefore you are not motivated to study. If you knew your work was going to be paid well and it was worth doing, then that would make studying an obvious advantage, because studying broadens your opportunities. But the labor market in our country is weighed down by high levies and deductions, which gets us into a vicious circle, which the current political representation only supports with their steps. Moreover, they make it abundantly clear that costs - and this gets us right back to the very beginning - must be carried by the middle class. Which is the most burdened one today, with the fastest decline in living standards.
CV BOX
Lubomír Zaorálek (born on the 6th of September 1956 in Ostrava) is the deputy chairman of the SOCDEM party (formerly ČSSD), and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Culture.
After his studies at the Faculty of Arts at the J. E. Purkyně University in Brno (in the field of philosophy and economics), he worked as a script editor in the Czechoslovak Ostrava TV. In November 1989,he co-founded the Civil Forum, for which he was co-opted into the House of the People of the Federal Assembly. He entered ČSSD in 1994, was its deputy chairman between the years 2009- 2018, and since June 2023, he's been the deputy chairman of the Social democracy party.
He first obtained the mandate of a deputy in the 1996 elections, and then defended it in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010, being the Speaker of the House in the 2002-2006 period. Between January 2014 and December 2017, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and between August 2019 and December 2021, he helmed the Ministry of Culture.
He is proficient in English, Russian and German. He is divorced, has three children, and lives in Prague with his partner.
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