Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues,
I would like to thank Filip Turek for giving me the opportunity to speak here today at the Patriots for Europe Conference.
The very title of this conference invites us to reflection. “Crossroads” – this is not just an image of a place of decision. It is a moment of truth. And the truth is this: Europe has already been at the crossroads before. Unfortunately, the direction it has chosen is the wrong one.
Instead of the path of free cooperation, the EU has chosen centralization, unification, and deliberate weakening.
Instead of the free market, it has embraced the ideology of redistribution.
Instead of freedom of speech, it has adopted a culture of silencing.
And instead of defending traditional values, it chose doubt, guilt, and self-flagellation.
The European Union was originally conceived as a post-war project of peace, trade, and cooperation. Its purpose was to unite strengths, not erase differences. It was designed to protect freedom, not to gradually take it away in the name of the greater good.
Under the banner of “a united Europe,” we are being forced into a unification that suppresses cultural, economic, and national diversity.
Under the guise of “solidarity,” we are witnessing unaccountable redistribution.
Under the mask of “fighting hate,” freedom of expression is being restricted, and a new form of censorship is being introduced – now disguised as terms like “misinformation” or “safe online spaces.”
The European Union, which was supposed to be a union of cooperating nations, is becoming a tool for reshaping society according to the radical ideas of Brussels elites and unelected structures. Despite the fact that more and more citizens across Europe see this, there is no change and no reflection. We continue along the same path as if nothing had happened.
Allow me to give you three examples which, among many others, I consider to be the most urgent indicators of the failure of today’s concept of the European Union.
First. The European green policy. It has nothing to do with protecting nature, despite the façade it tries to present. It is ideological and dictatorial. Its result is not cleaner cities, but the destruction of industry, dependence on foreign sources, and energy poverty.
In the Czech Republic, we can already see the consequences – the closure of coal-fired power stations without alternatives, pressure on electric mobility that the average citizen cannot afford, and the constant rise in energy prices, which hit working families and the elderly the hardest.
The second example is mass migration and the Migration Pact itself. After long discussions in Brussels about the redistribution of migrant quotas, or what is now called “mandatory solidarity,” it is becoming a reality.
And we, as the Czech Republic, have to decide – either we accept migrants we don’t want in our country, or we pay. In other words: either submission or ransom.
Yet more proof that we’re on the wrong path.
And the third, perhaps the most dangerous example – the attack on values.
Family, nation, faith, responsibility, work and capitalism – these are the values on which our civilization is based. And yet they are being systematically questioned.
Science is under pressure from activism, schools are being turned into ideological laboratories, and instead of teaching, indoctrination is taking place.
Instead of discussion, we are being forced to accept a “correct” opinion. Freedom of speech only applies to some of us, and anyone who dares to say “no” is immediately labelled as an “extremist,” a “populist,” or even an “enemy of democracy.”
The questioning of identity, gender experiments, and moral relativism are destroying the roots from which we have grown.
But I am not here today to call for a revolution.
I am here today to call for a return. A return to normality.
A return to a Europe that protects its citizens rather than false ideologies.
A return to a Europe where the state is not the enemy of the entrepreneur, but his partner.
A return to a Europe where ecological responsibility does not mean economic suicide.
A return to a Europe where the nation states decide who lives on their territory, what their children learn at school, and what rules apply in their homes.
We do not want less Europe. We just want a different Europe.
A Europe that does not lose its national identity and its family values.
A Europe that does not believe it can progress by destroying its own foundations.
A Europe that values work, tradition, and truth.
Because it is precisely these values – and these values alone – that have created the West as we know it. And if we abandon them, the West will cease to exist.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The symbolic crossroads may be behind us, but I believe that we still have a chance to turn around, to return, and to choose the right path once again.
It is not the path of populism, although they will tell us so.
It is not the path of extremism, although they will probably say that too.
It is the path of responsibility, courage, and common sense.
The path we once walked and the path we must return to.
Thank you for your attention.
