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December 2nd, 2008

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On leaving a party he built

Miloš Zeman reveals what makes him the leading political guru

By Iva Skochová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 28th, 2007 issue

Photo by Iva Skochová

The outspoken former prime minister continues to make waves, most recently in public squabbling with Jiří Paroubek over the ČSSD's woes.

Ex-Prime Minister Miloš Zeman, one of the country’s most influential politicians of the post-communist era, was in the headlines again last week for resigning from the Social Democrats (ČSSD) after being blamed for the party’s legal troubles and financial debts. It was the latest incident in a public score settling between Zeman and the party’s most recent prime minister, Jiří Paroubek.

During the June general election, Paroubek often sought his predecessor's counsel, as have many leaders since the end of Zeman’s 1998–2002 term, largely because the opinion of this retired, blustery 62-year-old carries great weight in the Czech press.

Tucked away in his cottage in east central Bohemia, Zeman insists that his opinion should only count as that of a “pensioner from Vysočina,” but journalists still quote him daily.

As for his relationship with Paroubek, Zeman admits it has been conflicted.

The trouble started during the lengthy machinations after the election. with parties trying endless variables on a workable coalition. Paroubek, Zeman says, “assured me he would not participate in a ‘grand coalition’ with the Civic Democrats [ODS]. We even wrote a joint article about it. After the election, he started pushing for the grand coalition. He broke his word.”

Calling Paroubek power-hungry, Zeman adds, “Power is sometimes understood as a goal in itself, but it shouldn’t be. Power is a means to get to a goal, in this case, the implementation of a political program. If you put the means ahead of the goal, you stop being a real politician.”

Paroubek, who defended his title as party chairman the weekend of March 24–25, still faces image problems, and, with Zeman’s wrath, they will only increase.

Not so quiet retirement

For a reporter, visiting Zeman can be a nerve-wrecking experience. He is known for giving journalists a quick economy or history test to see if they are knowledgeable enough to be worth his time. During his administration, he sometimes called them dwarfs or impotent. In return, the media always made sure they only published the worst possible pictures of Zeman.

“I don’t blame journalists for not knowing something,” Zeman, 62, says in that signature deep, slightly condescending voice, while lighting a pipe. “But I blame them for denying they don’t know.”

Sipping red Moravian wine in front of a fireplace in his modest cottage in Nové Veselí, he appears noticeably less frightening and arrogant.

Still, he says, “Since this country was ruled by communism for 40 years, it is obvious that not only politicians, but also journalists, are less experienced and erudite than their Western peers.”

One reason Zeman’s departure from the ČSSD made such headlines is because he transformed the party from an insignificant group into a major player in the 1990s. Since his departure, it has slogged through three different prime ministers and suffered one scandal after another.

But Zeman disputes any implication that — with a loyal voter base primarily among the older and less educated — left-leaning politics in the Czech Republic is facing a crisis.

“I don’t agree that young university students are mostly right-wingers,” he says. “They just don’t like idiots. And, because of the personnel genocide that swept across the ČSSD [after my departure], the Social Democrats have a larger percentage of idiots than the ODS.”

Carnivorous plant with thorns

He describes the current state of Czech politics simply: “It is the inability of politicians to cope with the will of the voters.”

The era of Zeman’s ČSSD leadership, with Václav Klaus as his right-of-center counterpart, seems ages away from recent months, in which Paroubek and ODS Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek deadlocked for six months over forming a government based on one or two “turncoats.”

“The two biggest parties were able to come to an agreement back then,” Zeman recalls. “They respected the right of the winning party to form a government and the right of the defeated party to respect that government.”

Both Zeman and Klaus were seen as strong leaders then, respected intellectuals, if men of great self-adoration. Zeman provided an earthy and entertaining counterpart to the elitist, immaculately dressed Klaus. While Klaus was compared to a decorative oleander, Zeman was called a carnivorous plant with thorns. But, Zeman says, the two always respected each other.

In 2003, a few months after Zeman officially left politics, he ran for president and suffered a painful loss to Klaus, mainly attributed to party disunity.

Among the biggest continuing topics on which the two disagree is the European Union. Klaus, a Thatcherite, believes the EU should be solely an economic entity. Zeman is a euro federalist, believing in expanding the alliance of culturally compatible countries “from the Atlantic to the Pacific,” even to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, when the time is right.

The leftist intellectual at last

While he was prime minister, political analysts called Zeman anything from a charismatic — and poorly dressed — leader to a vulgar hick. His speeches and public appearances were usually reviewed as either sharp-witted or insulting, sometimes both.

The aspects of Zeman’s personality no one ever questioned, however, were his intelligence and honesty. Exceptionally articulate and well-read, Zeman has mastered the skill of expressing himself clearly and precisely, although not always politely.

After he announced his retirement, few believed a man of his caliber would be able to live outside the political spotlight for long. But he has surprised most and keeps confirming he will not return to politics “under any circumstances.”

Walking past his library of hundreds of books, stacked two-deep, he explains: “I keep the best books in the back row. Otherwise, people always want to borrow them and forget to return them.”

The material ranges from Václav Havel’s political essays to science fiction. Always with a few books going at once, Zeman is currently reading a biography of Tchaikovsky and Stanisław Lem’s Summa Technologiae.

In the past two years, he has also written and published two books of his own. Both revealed behind-the-scenes details that embarrassed many politicians and landed on Czech best-seller lists.

In 2001, when Tony Blair wondered why he wanted to retire at the peak of his political career, Zeman answered: “That’s exactly why. It is best to leave at the top of your game.”

Iva Skochová can be reached at iskochova@praguepost.com

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