Uploaded July 2020 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
The tenth of a series of interviews of European Left leaders "Meeting the Left".
Walter Baier and Barbara Steinar interview Vojtěch Filip.
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Vojtěch Filip, Chairman of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM). He holds a doctorate in law he started his professional career already in socialist times in a commercial enterprise. In 1993, he founded his own law firm. In 1990, in the first elections after the Velvet revolution, he was elected to the Federal Assembly, and in 1996 he became member of the House of Deputies, the Czech Parliament.
Currently KSČM holds 15 seats in the Czech Parliament and MEP in the European Parliament where it joined the Left fraction GUE/NGL. It is an observing member in the EL.
Walter Baier, Austrian economist and former National Chairman of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ). He was an editor of the Austrian weekly Volksstimme and since 2007 he is the Political Coordinator of transform! europe.
Barbara Steiner is a political scientist based in Vienna, is the Director of transform! europe and member of transform.at
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The Corona-virus has hit the EU unprepared, but in different ways and with different effects depending on the countries. Most tragic were the effects on those countries whose healthcare and social systems have been emaciated by decades of austerity policies. Thus, the pandemic has increased inequalities not only inside the states but also between the Member States of the EU. This presents the parties of the radical left with a challenge and calls for a re-examination of their strategies.
The tenth of a series of interviews of European Left leaders "Meeting the Left".
Walter Baier and Barbara Steinar interview Vojtěch Filip.
***
Vojtěch Filip, Chairman of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM). He holds a doctorate in law he started his professional career already in socialist times in a commercial enterprise. In 1993, he founded his own law firm. In 1990, in the first elections after the Velvet revolution, he was elected to the Federal Assembly, and in 1996 he became member of the House of Deputies, the Czech Parliament.
Currently KSČM holds 15 seats in the Czech Parliament and MEP in the European Parliament where it joined the Left fraction GUE/NGL. It is an observing member in the EL.
Walter Baier, Austrian economist and former National Chairman of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ). He was an editor of the Austrian weekly Volksstimme and since 2007 he is the Political Coordinator of transform! europe.
Barbara Steiner is a political scientist based in Vienna, is the Director of transform! europe and member of transform.at
***
The Corona-virus has hit the EU unprepared, but in different ways and with different effects depending on the countries. Most tragic were the effects on those countries whose healthcare and social systems have been emaciated by decades of austerity policies. Thus, the pandemic has increased inequalities not only inside the states but also between the Member States of the EU. This presents the parties of the radical left with a challenge and calls for a re-examination of their strategies.
