Miloš Zeman - Confessions of an Informed Optimist

“As a man I am satisfied, as a citizen I am not.”

“I am a Eurofederalist, and therefore an opponent of the European superstate.”

“When two people are fighting, there must be someone to calm them down: and that is the president.”

This and much more is said in his new book by Miloš Zeman, former chairman of the Social Democrats, speaker of the parliament and prime minister – and the newly elected President of the Czech Republic.

Miloš Zeman is open, but he does not rely on well-sounding witticisms. What is said about wine applies to him: the older, the better. His assessment of the last ten years of life in our state, those ten years during which he was not in high politics, and therefore has the right to judge them as if from the outside, but with interest, is worth a careful read. Miloš Zeman comments on this period in Czech politics and economics and presents his thoughts concerning the office of president and his potential conception of the performance of this highest constitutional function. But he also offers a glimpse – and an unexpectedly candid one – into his private life, guiding us through the pitfalls of his personality, not afraid to name his weaknesses aloud… This confession is crowned by a kind dedication to his two children, an adult son and a teenage daughter. Miloš Zeman presents himself to us here as a person with whom it is pleasant and inspiring to be in conversation.

In fact, it is in this spirit that the journalist Petr Žantovský, who prepared this book-length interview with Miloš Zeman, speaks: “This is already our second book together, the first one was published ten years ago when Miloš Zeman was leaving politics and retiring to the Vysočina region. Today, he is returning to politics from Vysočina, and I feel as if those ten years have not even passed. As if we only briefly ended that continuous dialogue yesterday, only to return to it today. That many years older… and perhaps even wiser.”

The publication Confession of an Informed Optimist, whose title is based on one of Miloš Zeman's sentences, is an extremely interesting insight into the thinking, life and goals of the man who became the first directly elected president in the history of our country.