President-elect Petr Pavel, February 23, 2023.
Ústí nad Labem – On Friday, incoming president Petr Pavel will meet with the chair of the ANO parliamentary club Alena Schillerová and the vice-chair Members of the House behind ANO Karel Havlíček as representatives of the opposition, he wants to know their opinion on the government's proposal to reduce the valuation of pensions. Pavel said this to journalists in Ústí nad Labem today during his one-day visit to the region.
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Photo gallery: President-elect Petr Pavel
On Wednesday, Pavel spoke with the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) about the pension valorization proposal. The newly elected president said at Wednesday's meeting today that he wanted to know from the minister not only what concerns the said proposal, but also the broader context within the entire pension reform, i.e. what are the options, alternatives, or what will result from it. “Before I get a picture of it, I will also want to discuss it with others. I am debating it with my economic experts and tomorrow (Friday) I will meet with representatives of the opposition, specifically with Alena Schillerová and Karl Havlíček, to hear their opinion on the matter . Only then will I take a position on it,” said Pavel when asked if he would sign the possible law regarding lower pension growth.
According to the government's proposal, the average old-age pension should increase from June due to inflation by 760 crowns instead of the 1,770 crowns it would have increased under the current rules. According to the cabinet, the reduction is necessary to maintain the pension system. The opposition refuses to support the change, threatens complaints to the Constitutional Court and obstructions in the House of Representatives. For example, Schillerová said last week that she would turn to legal experts to analyze whether the government's procedure has an “unconstitutional dimension”.
Pavel already spoke about the topic of pension reform today in Česká Kamenice in Děčínsk. He told the people in the square that the solution to the considered extension of the retirement age must be more flexible and suit people of various professions as well as their abilities in terms of health.
The trip to the north of Bohemia is Pavlov's second trip to the regions after the elections, last week he was in the Karlovy Vary region. Similar to the previous visit, his goal today in the Ústí Region was to get to know the problems that the locals “burn” so that he could discuss them with the ministers and the government. According to him, both regions have very similar problems. They concern education, the availability of health care, employment for people in the region so that they do not have to leave, or housing for people with social and financial problems, said Pavel after a tour of the Mojžíř elementary school in Ústí, in a socially excluded location.
After visiting the school, he also responded to a journalist's question about whether there will be official portraits of him in school classrooms. He doesn't think it's necessary. He stated that he was initially not interested in either classroom portraits or stamps with his portrait. But when he saw the anger it caused among the citizens, he decided to give it a “free course”. “If people want portraits, fine, let them have them, if they want stamps, we will try to make a limited edition,” he added.
Pavel will end his visit to the region at the J.E. Purkyně University, where he is program of meetings with students and the public.
