In a debate last night with citizens in the Karlovy Vary region, President Petr Pavel suggested that the redistribution of taxes in the Czech Republic should be more closely connected with the quality of life in individual regions, as economically weak regions need more help. The president is on an official two-day visit to the region.
Pavel also said the overall economic level of the country must be assessed based on the level of the weakest regions.
The Karlovy Vary Region ranks last in many areas compared to the other regions in the Czech Republic.
“The performance of a team is measured by the weakest player,” Pavel said. “If a region lags behind, it will be a holdout for the whole country. But so far, we have not taken a systemic approach to this.”
He noted that it would be advisable to set a higher tax distribution coefficient where there are problems.
“But nobody wants to do that yet. It is sensitive and requires strong political courage,” Pavel said. “And when parties are concerned about votes, they do not want to come up with an idea that will be unpopular and will hurt someone.”
“We should make a map of the republic based on the quality of life, seven or eight criteria that would be scored. And we should set the allocation of taxes from the state budget based on those, and direct resources to the areas where the differences are the biggest,” the president added.
About 200 people attended the debate with the president in the main hall of the Ambassador Hotel in Karlovy Vary, filling about two-thirds of its capacity.
They asked the president questions about the completion of the motorway from the region, the poor railway connections, and the transfer of state costs to municipalities.
The president’s two-day visit will continue today with talks with representatives of the Karlovy Vary Region and its municipalities. The main focus of the meeting with mayors will be local issues, such as problems of socially excluded localities, structural disparities in the region, and education.
During his visit, Pavel will see the towns of Karlovy Vary, Kraslice and Marianske Lazne.
In the presidential elections in January 2023, voters in the Karlovy Vary Region preferred his opponent, Andrej Babis (ANO).
The president paid a two-day visit to the Usti nad Labem Region this week, where he attended two round-table debates, one of the topics being socially excluded localities. At the end of his visit, he said that the basic problem of these localities was their concentration in a small area, with 70% of them being in three regions.
In his first year in office, Pavel visited all regions except for the Usti and Karlovy Vary regions, which he toured before his presidential inauguration. He previously visited the Karlovy Vary Region on 4 September 2023, when he opened the new school year at a local primary school.
