For fairness: Fiala wants to invest in armament. It's not just about Putin, but also about business and tax discounts.
Before embarking on a trip to Brussels, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) signaled investments in the Czech arms industry. In the center of the European Union, the leaders of member countries meet to discuss the need to focus more on European security. After all, outside the gates stands the imperialistic leader of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the new tenant in the White House is primarily provoking conflicts with his allies. However, arming is also a business opportunity.
Times are changing and for pacifists, who were pushing defense spending out of state budgets in favor of social benefits (starting with extraordinary valorization for pensioners and ending with tax breaks for real estate investors), the alarm bell is now ringing in Europe.
Vladimir Putin has transformed from a European favorite, whose persecution of political opponents was being overlooked, into threat number one. Donald Trump gleefully picks fights with the United States' closest allies. Any excuse is good for him. The indifference of most Europeans towards the well-known NATO 2% defense budget rule has become an ideal bone of contention.
They could profit from Putin's imperialism
In reality, Europe was not too concerned about Trump. If the current Czech government is proud of meeting the two percent alliance commitment, it reached for it in the middle of Joe Biden's term, when Trump's draft seemed to be more of a pious wish of the republican MAGA cult. However, the bloody war and Putin's threats to Central Europe were more real than enough. Understandably, there have long been supporters of a strong security policy in Europe, and they can now emerge from obscurity.
"Europe has to take more care of its security. Take on more responsibility. We must, however, also support the European defense industry and this is in the Czech interest. The Czech Republic has a strong defense industry. The increase in defense spending is almost a necessity. We fulfill 2 percent of GDP and we are prepared to discuss an increase in the amount,"
said at the briefing before departing for the current summit of European leaders on security issues Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
Although security policy is a nice thing, but in the real world, and ODS politicians would like to present themselves as realists, there is still something else important. Money and business. Entrepreneurship has its economic cycles and without innovation, an entrepreneurial intention is usually exhausted. Czechia is dealing with what to do with its car parts assembly plants. They have managed to turn one of the biggest bugbears of national economies called unemployment into a purely theoretical concept in their own country, but car manufacturers are now facing new challenges in which there may not be enough space for the Czech assembly plant.
The Czech Republic can remain the industrial heart of Europe, but it will come at a cost
However, it will not be possible to turn the Czechia into a skiing paradise overnight, as we know it from Austria, and the unthought-out crumbs thrown at the Czech education system will not make us a knowledge economy anytime soon.
Cobbler, stick to your last. Once the Czech Republic is the industrial heart of Europe with the largest share of industry in GDP, why change anything? The time of arming is inevitably here, so it might be useful to ride this wave. Domestic arms factories led by Czechoslovak group or Colt CZ, which belong to the first league of this business worldwide, could bite into a really big pie. If the promise of increasing European expenditure, not only Fiala is convinced of, but also the head of NATO Mark Rutte, was significantly fulfilled, it could be a great business opportunity.
The complication may be that the Americans would primarily want the money from the increased European military budgets, and right behind them, the starving French and Germans. An even more serious question is where the Czech state budget will get the money from? If the expenses were raised by a single percent (up to three percentage points are in play), it would mean expenses of approximately 80 billion crowns a year.
At the same time, the Czech Prime Minister honestly emphasizes low state expenditure and does not want to increase taxes. Donald Trump advises with his criticism, about Europe's preference for social state at the expense of security. Essentially, he is right. In the USA, health insurance is a luxury and the standard is 10 days of vacation per year, but they invest 3.38% of GDP into the army.
Perhaps world changes in geopolitics will bring not only new opportunities to Czech industry, but also shorten the list of tax deductions that everyone who files their tax returns will study again with the new year.
Sources: author's article, commentary, SeznamZpravy, Novinky.cz, CTK
