At a Munich Security Conference panel discussionSaturday, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Petr Macinka got into a spat with Hillary Clinton — that’s gone viral — over areas, like gender, where he believes the West may have gone too far. Below, Macinka offers follow-up advice to Hillary and the West.
As I sat on a panel with Hillary Clinton, it became clear that we weren’t just debating different policies. We were speaking from two different realities.
Mrs. Clinton seemed uncomfortable with the truth. And she should have been.
My exchange with her went viral not because it was a provocation, but because it delivered what some commentators have joked is a long-overdue “reality Czech” to a political class that’s lost its way.
As deputy prime minister of a nation that survived more than 40 years of Soviet-backed communism, I can recognize a socialist power grab from a mile away.
We know exactly what it looks like when a ruling class stops debating and starts dictating.
Czechs are betting on common sense because we have seen the alternative.
In this regard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s civilizational address in Munich was a tour de force.
I would sign every word of it, especially his call for an alliance rooted in shared heritage rather than hollow globalism.
Here is some advice to help the West survive:
1. Stop blaming Trump for the crisis of the West.
Donald Trump did not “break” the West. He reacted to the deep and painful rot caused by the growing alienation between political elites and ordinary citizens.
When millions vote for a disruption of the system, it is not a “failure of the voters.” It is a historic failure of the establishment — and democracy expressing itself in its purest form.
2. The West isn’t crumbling because of “nationalism.”
It is crumbling because it has lost touch with reality. As Secretary Rubio rightly said, armies do not fight for abstractions — they fight for a people, a nation, a way of life.
The greatest threat to our unity is not national sovereignty; it’s a war on reality led by those who believe they can re-engineer human nature from a government office.
3. Alliances must be built on mutual respect, not “re-education.”
As foreign minister, I naturally want a strong transatlantic bond, a strong NATO. Central Europe understands the cost of war.
But we must stop hollowing out national sovereignty and shifting power to technocrats who regulate without a democratic mandate. Real partners respect each other’s sovereignty — they don’t try to “fix” it.
4. A “Woke Revolution” is not a foreign-policy doctrine.
When diplomacy revolves around gender theory, climate alarmism and identity politics instead of hard security and national interest, we lose.
Our adversaries in Moscow and Beijing don’t care about diversity quotas; they care about our weakness.
In recent years, green ideology has ceased to be a policy debate and has begun to resemble a secular religion.
It has its original sin, the industrial civilization; its prophets, activists and bureaucrats; its heretics, anyone who questions the dogma; its indulgences, carbon credits; and its apocalyptic end-of-days narrative.
Once this neo-Marxist current was on the fringes. In Europe, however, we elevated it to the mainstream, embedding it deeply within EU structures.
When I was appointed, I said on that day the so-called “climate crisis” had ended in the Czech Republic. You can imagine how popular that made me among our domestic liberals.
5. Democracy means respecting the result — even when you lose.
It’s time to stop labeling every conservative victory a “threat to democracy.” If voters choose a government that prioritizes secure borders and traditional values, that’s democracy in action.
Rejecting the will of the people because they did not choose the “correct” candidate is the most anti-democratic impulse of all.
6. Biological and social realities cannot be legislated away.
When I told Mrs. Clinton there are two genders, I was not attacking anyone. I was stating a biological reality. We refuse to let political ideology rewrite nature itself.
A society that cannot agree on the most basic truths about human existence is a society that cannot endure. My philosophy is simple: live and let live. But do not force me to deny reality.
7. Defending the West starts at home.
We cannot project strength abroad if we are decaying within. It is impossible to confront external adversaries while our own leaders apologize for our history instead of defending our future.
Unity will not come from moralizing lectures by the globalist establishment. It will come only if we return to the foundations that made Western civilization strong: family, faith and national responsibility.
We are not at all rejecting the West. We are determined to save it.
