Forks? The businessman from Prague is for Babiš. “I’ll say what he won’t like.”
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“I am very disappointed and frankly tired of the way things have developed here,” he begins his story for ParlamentníListy.cz. “I am a former ODS voter, I also have a few friends in the party, they even roped me into them at the time… However, ODS has its best years behind it. The peak was under Topolánek, with the arrival of Nečas it started to go downhill and under the leadership of Petr Fiala it is one big tragedy. I gradually started to differ with ODS and I missed the strong personality at the head. Well, I’ve been voting YES for several years now,” admits Filip Weiss. And he adds that it is definitely not true that ANO is a party for fools and country people. “This is being announced by those who had to form a coalition in order to even have a chance of getting any decent numbers in the elections,” the businessman objects. He himself comes from Prague, where he still lives today, graduated from university and has been in business for over two decades. “I have a general outlook, I like to travel around the world and get to know foreign cultures. In terms of income, I belong to the upper class, I am definitely not a poor person who votes YES because of an extra five hundred. But it’s about something else,” Weiss. “We can think what we want about Andrej Babiš, but it cannot be denied that he is interested in what is happening in this country. When I compare his level of engagement with politics before him, it’s sky and bagpipes. The fact that not everything came to fruition is another matter. We have a monstrous bureaucracy here, and in politics you can’t always get everything through. But I’m all about the engagement. Babiš is a person who really cares about people. As an entrepreneur, when I needed something a few times, I could turn to Babiš directly. And to always respond. He was not always able to help me, but he never rejected me. But now? Communication with the government is insane. Arrogant Síkel must be cursed in that country already,” warns every entrepreneur about the Minister of Industry and Trade.
“When TOGETHER won the election a year ago and created ten fivers, I was disappointed, I admit. But because I try to look for the positive in everything, I found more hope in the Pirates. I thought that I would be able to help entrepreneurs – I mainly mean digitization, the speed of setting up companies, simply that they will support a more friendly business environment,” entrepreneur Filip Weiss tells ParlamentnímListům.cz about his hopes. “After all, they had it in the program, they kept flaunting it. And so, as it turned out later, I naively believed that there would be a shift in this field. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The worst thing, and not only in politics, is when someone gives you hope and then doesn’t fulfill it. Maybe in these x years I could have gotten used to the fact that politicians generally stick to the slogan of promising not to make you sad. I guess that’s the businessman talking about me,” Weiss shrugs. “I’m used to business, that the given word applies. When you break your word in business, you can do it once, twice, you might get away with it. But then it will be outspoken, and no one will want anything to do with you. But in politics, lying, cheating and breaking promises are the norm. Only some parties do it more and others less,” says Filip Weiss. “And of all the parties I’ve known in my entire history, ANO did the least. The government of Andrej Babiš, even though it was going through severe media defamation, was a good government for me personally. Again, I’m going to say something that a lot of people won’t like, but I’m convinced that the management of the state is simply effective. A lot of classic politicians have not experienced a normal job in their life, where they can reduce performance and generate energy for themselves. Career politicians live off the state, that’s a completely different category of thinking than people who have done work experience in the private sector. It can be seen in how they run this country, what laws they propose and what lobbyists they listen to…”
Peter Fiala’s government is said to have destroyed Weiss’s business. “That’s why I was quite angry when I read the transcript of the praise that government politicians showered on each other yesterday,” he pointed out at the last meeting of the Chamber of Deputies. “They say we helped with energy, we helped put a ceiling on prices… That I even dare to say this! So I’ll tell you how it helped my company – I had to cut back on investment funds until about 2028. We had planned modernization, a new hall, automation of production lines, etc. It had to go aside to pay for energy expenses, because instead of hundreds of thousands, I had to pay millions month after month,” explains Weiss. A company in the field of packaging materials, where the energy requirements are said to be quite high: “On average, we use 300-350 mWh of electricity per month. When the price of 1 mWh was 700 euros at the time, I was on the edge of despair. And the government didn’t even want to hear about any capping. When, after months of procrastinating and arguing that it was pointless, she finally got around to it, it didn’t help me much…”
As for the energy issue, Weiss is a supporter of the nationalization of ČEZ: “But that won’t happen. Because of the shareholders. Because who are the shareholders? I’m not talking about the small ones, but about the big animals. They are also politicians and businessmen. Big names that I don’t want to mention here, but I know about them and a smart person thinks… Politicians and businessmen who licked the most of the cream when CEZ was partially privatized. These people have huge, often unrecognized or hidden assets, royal dividends, and it is not logically in their interest to change the status quo. As they say, carp don’t drain their pond,” entrepreneur Weiss tells ParlamentnímListům.cz. “I can imagine, for example, that the government would also want to take ČEZ into state hands, but it is difficult when, for example, a party colleague or godfather who pours money into the ODS comes to such a Petr Fiala and warns him that this not a good idea…” Weiss is said to be convinced that this happens regularly: “But it’s not just CEZ. There are other fields where it is similar. And you know, I am sure that Andrej Babiš would eventually go along with the nationalization of ČEZ, because no godfather could blackmail him. He cannot be bribed or intimidated and influenced. And for this reason, I claim that Babiš was a good prime minister, and now I also think he would be a good president.”
Regarding the presidential campaign, Filip Weiss does not like the one-sided media promotion of certain candidates: “And the term democratic candidates – what is it like? No one has explained to me exactly why Andrej Babiš, but also Jaroslav Bašta or Karel Diviš, are not democratic. Just repeated phrases about leaning towards Russia or China, threats to democracy, etc. But that’s another misleading thing,” says Weiss. “As for Babiš, he was never inclined towards Russia. That was the domain of Miloš Zeman. Babiš cultivates relations in the West, he wants to be perceived as an equal partner of large Western states. And as for China, towards which he has a downright negative attitude. The Chinese robbed him of his business years ago. He doesn’t trust them,” explains Filip Weiss to ParlamentnímListům.cz. “Babiš never wanted to introduce censorship, as the current government is planning, he never aggressively spoke out against his opponents. So what threat to democracy does this man pose? On the contrary – the current government has butter on its head.”
Regarding the election itself, Weiss is said to be clear: “I think Andrej Babiš is a capable guy, maybe tough, maybe quirky, but he’s just a personality. Employing tens of thousands of people, he knew how to use the situation to build an empire. “There’s nothing wrong with having situational intelligence,” Weiss says. “And what seems really hypocritical to me is that no one from the proper media criticizes this, for example with such a Bakala. And he demonstrably behaved terribly, tunneled as much as he could and bolted. Babiš lives here, runs a business, pays taxes, employs people. So what’s the point, why the hate?” Weiss fumes.
Photogallery: – Coronation jewels
According to the disgruntled businessman, Petr Fiala’s government is locked in its own bubble: “When I see the government policy coming out, I see people who are not bringing anything new to this country, let alone good. Even the cancellation of EET, with which the government is making money, is rather a step backwards.” Weiss thinks that the electronic record of sales had its meaning: “I am convinced that the negative connotations were largely because Andrej Babiš proposed it. If someone else had suggested it, it wouldn’t have caused such passions. As a big businessman, I had no problem with that. It could present complications for some small traders, but the world is constantly changing and the market with it,” EET Weiss defends. “It was not primarily a hunt for entrepreneurs, but EET was tasked with cultivating the market and bringing more money to the treasury. And that worked too. Now that we have yet another huge deficit and Mr. Stanjura is crying that there is no money, canceling the EET was a really idiotic idea. Again, according to the government’s ploy to show me – we are different from Babiš. Just because they’re different doesn’t mean they’re better. So far they haven’t convinced me at all.’
Disappointment with the atmosphere in the Czech Republic is so strong for Filip Weiss that he is even considering leaving: “I have been toying with that idea for an intense year and a half. And I’m closer to that decision almost every day. Unfortunately, I do not feel the support for work here as I would imagine. I am mainly crushed by bureaucracy, which is also manifested in the fact that the more successful you are, the more suspicious you are to the authorities. The mentality of forty years of totalitarianism is still strong here. The proof is also the fact that two candidates for president with a communist past are now facing each other. But there is a difference between them. This one is trained to give and obey orders, he would like order and peace here. This was once here – order according to one template and peace of mind for those in power… The other is used to working hard and I can say from personal experience that when he can, he really takes action and helps you solve the problem. We will see who this country elects. I am clear. And if it doesn’t turn out as I imagined, I will have even more of a reason to leave,” concludes entrepreneur Filip Weiss for ParlamentníListy.cz.
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author: Andrea Novotná