Thirty-two years ago, Tom Philipp, still not a party member at the time, ran in municipal elections for KDU-ČSL. He has been a member of the Christian Democrats for almost a quarter of a century. He was a member of the Prague 12 municipal council for thirty years and has been a Member of Parliament for five years. He has therefore experienced many changes in “his” party and remembers periods of both success and decline. The Christian Democrats have now undergone another change and desperately need a new lease of life.
KDU-ČSL has a new chairman, South Moravian Governor Jan Grolich. From your perspective, what does this change mean and what should it bring to the party?
Jan Grolich is a successful and relatable regional politician who managed to defend his position as governor and appeal to people beyond KDU-ČSL’s traditional voter base. I therefore see his election as an opportunity to bring new energy to the party, greater openness and the ability to talk about our values in contemporary language. But change does not depend on just one person. The entire leadership has become significantly younger and has the energy, courage and desire to change things. I believe it can bring this energy not only to the party membership, but above all to voters.
Since the break-up of the SPOLU coalition, KDU-ČSL has been unable to get above the five-per-cent “survival threshold”. Would it make sense to you for KDU-ČSL to join forces with TOP 09, which after all was originally established as a Christian right-wing project, to form some kind of smaller SPOLU?
It is true that the polls are not very favourable to KDU-ČSL at the moment. That is precisely why we decided to change course, significantly rejuvenate the leadership and give space to people who have already shown in practice that they know how to win voters’ trust. At this point, therefore, I consider the debate about joining forces with TOP 09 or forming some kind of “smaller SPOLU” premature. Each party must first show what it itself has to offer, who its leading figures are and whether it can appeal to voters. As the elections approach, it will of course be necessary to choose a strategy that prevents votes from being wasted and allows us to promote our values. For now, however, our main task is to rebuild a strong and self-confident KDU-ČSL.
KDU-ČSL is going into October’s municipal elections in Prague in a coalition with the Greens and Praha sobě. How do you personally view this alliance?
Several options were on the table during negotiations on pre-election cooperation – renewing the original SPOLU format as well as a joint candidacy with Praha sobě and the Greens. In the end, the second option prevailed. The fact that Jan Čižinský originally came from KDU-ČSL and is close to us on a number of municipal issues certainly also played a role. I see this alliance primarily as a pragmatic agreement for Prague, based on specific individuals and shared policy priorities.
There is great dissatisfaction among voters with Andrej Babiš’s government, but dissatisfaction with the opposition’s performance is even greater. The government’s performance is often lacklustre, yet the opposition cannot find a way to attract voters and win them over.
I consider the government’s performance very weak, but it is concealed by Andrej Babiš’s professional and powerful marketing, for which he has ample resources. Moreover, he often relies on populism, the simplification of complex problems and statements that go beyond the bounds of truth. It is difficult for the opposition to counter such a style while at the same time adhering to the rules of decent and substantive political competition. But that does not relieve us of responsibility. We must be more active and communicate more clearly. In the end, voters will have to decide whether appealing promises and living at the expense of the future are enough for them, or whether they prefer a serious, responsible and measured approach. They are the ones who will then have to live with it. Moreover, even intensive government marketing cannot conceal everything; the prime minister has evidently lost his touch, and the result is things that genuinely harm the Czech Republic, such as his strange statements about the European anti-missile coalition, which the Czech Republic has so far not joined.
At the end of July, Czech society was preoccupied with a shortage of the important cancer drug tamoxifen. How can something like this happen, and can such situations be completely prevented?
Shortages of individual medicines unfortunately occur from time to time and cannot be completely prevented. What matters, however, is how quickly and effectively the state responds to them. We adopted an amendment to the Pharmaceuticals Act that gave the Ministry of Health and the State Institute for Drug Control more powers and tools to deal with such situations. In my view, this makes Minister Adam Vojtěch’s sluggish response to the shortage of tamoxifen, an important medicine used in the treatment of breast cancer, all the more serious. Downplaying the whole situation is also insensitive towards women undergoing treatment for a serious illness who are understandably worried about whether their treatment will be available to them. At such a moment, the state must act quickly, communicate openly and offer a concrete solution, not trivialise the problem.
There is a lot of talk about pensions and the state of the pension account. But what about Czech healthcare – is it financially sustainable and capable of further development in its current form?
Andrej Babiš’s government is sending more than twenty billion Czech crowns into healthcare from the state budget by taking on debt, but additional money alone is no substitute for reform. Instead of systemic changes, Minister Adam Vojtěch mainly talks about what could or might be done, because he does not have enough courage to take unpopular steps. It is understandable that no one is eager to enter into difficult negotiations with healthcare professionals, trade unions, insurance companies and the public. Genuine reform also requires the ability to withstand pressure from various interest groups. Czech healthcare is financially sustainable, but not without fundamental changes. Far-reaching reforms will be necessary, affecting the organisation of care, its efficiency and the responsibility of individual actors. Such changes will of course hurt. But we cannot expect them from a populist government.
A new academic year has begun – how successful have universities been in increasing the numbers of medical and nursing students? Why is it still so difficult to get into medical school when there is a shortage of doctors?
Interest in studying medicine is enormous, so that really is not the problem. The willingness of doctors to teach is a much greater problem. For an experienced doctor, it is generally more financially advantageous to devote their time to patients than to teaching, which is why teaching at medical faculties is often undertaken primarily by enthusiasts. Similarly, we also face limited capacity at clinical training sites and a shortage of teachers in other healthcare fields. This creates an apparent paradox: we need doctors and nurses and have enough people interested in studying, but we do not have adequate conditions for educating them. I have been drawing attention to this problem for some time and am trying to connect the academic and political worlds so that politicians better understand where the real obstacles lie and how to remove them.
The author is a European editor of Deník
CV BOX
Tom Philipp (born 26 December 1968 in Prague) is the Head of the Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Clinic of the Third Faculty of Medicine at Charles University and the Thomayer University Hospital, MP, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Health Insurance Company (VZP), member of the Prague 12 Municipal Assembly, and former vice-chair of the KDU-ČSL.
Following his graduation from the Second Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in 1993, he started working as a physician at the rheumatology ward in the Thomayer Hospital, later serving as Deputy Director (2005–2014). In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Health, a position he held for four years. From late November 2018, he worked at Agel, a.s., as the First Vice-Chairman of the board and Director of the Jeseník Hospital. He never fully severed ties with Thomayer Hospital and eventually returned there full-time.
He has been a KDU-ČSL member since 2002 and an MP since 2021. After eight years of serving as a member of the VZP Board of Directors, he became its Chairman in February 2022.
Philipp lives in Prague. He is married and has five children. He enjoys hiking, cycling, cynology, and fishing. Politics remains his primary hobby, however.
MEDIA
The opposition is engaged in a major battle with the government over the funding of public-service media. Will it manage to prevent the abolition of the current system, or at least postpone it beyond next year? “We will do everything we can,” says Tom Philipp. “We will explain again and again why independent and stable funding of public-service media is important, and we will try to persuade some government MPs as well. Civil society and public opinion can also play a major role. Andrej Babiš follows the polls, and if he finds that this plan is not bringing him support, he may drop it just as quickly as he is pushing it through. Postponing it by a year would not in itself represent a fundamental solution, but it would provide time for further negotiations and for finding a more reasonable model. That is why it makes sense to speak up – public pressure really can make the difference.”
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