Pavel Bém, the former mayor of Prague, member of parliament and vice-chairman of the Citizen Democrats, will become the new national anti-drug coordinator. Today, the 62-year-old Bém is still an ordinary member of the ODS, but otherwise no longer active in politics – he works as the head physician of the Center for Family Therapy in the Addiction Clinic in Prague.
In addition to the head of the ANO movement, Motorists are also interested in Pavel Bém. Some of them are calling on him to return to politics, they would like to see him as their candidate for mayor of Prague in the autumn municipal elections.
“I have a number of friends among the Motorists and it is no secret that we come from the same socio-economic background, we are greatly influenced by Václav Klaus. But I have to admit that I did not talk to the Motorists about any of their fantasies. Moreover, since I am not an influencer and do not know how to handle social networks, I probably could not be a successful politician today,” says Pavel Bém in an interview for Seznam Zprávy.
What if you gave the nod to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš for this position, do you and the chairman of the ANO movement get along somehow?
I have known Andrej Babiš for a long time, long before he entered Czech politics. And I always considered him a man and a politician of action, which is not usual in the Czech basin. Rather, we see beautiful-sounding thoughts, sentences, fantasies, dreams, wishes, promises in it, but it remains only with words. And I consider Andrej Babiš to be the anti-prototype of this Czech political mainstream. He is a person who primarily wants to solve things, and I like that very much.
So do you believe that under him, as prime minister, you will actually implement the changes in your field that others only talk about at conferences?
I hope so, because I have some history and experience with Andrej Babiš. Years ago, I had the opportunity to work with him in his first government. And again this year, when the harsh reality affecting the possession of a small amount of marijuana was changed in the criminal code. We communicated intensively then. And among other things, they discussed the phenomenon of a dramatic increase in mental disorders among children and adolescents accompanied by self-harm or even complete suicide.
And I can completely hear him – he immediately told you: So come and do it to me, you have a function here.
It wasn’t that fast. I tried to explain to Andrej Babiš the system contexts and what should be done. And I suggested to him that I would draft the government’s program statement for drugs and mental health in the relevant chapters. I did that and asked him to make it one of the government’s priorities. And Andrej Babiš simply implemented it promptly.
Already in the pre-election campaign, it was clear that the topic of children’s mental health is a kind of personal priority for Babiš, he talked about it everywhere. You probably didn’t have to convince him much, did you?
Absolutely one hundred percent. He has experienced it in his own family and talks about it very openly, which I must admit is very endearing to me. It is also a picture of his credibility that he really knows something about it, that he wants to do something about it. Only soon Andrej Babiš asked me a question – so what will happen to you? I need someone there who understands. This put me in a dilemma, even though it wasn’t my primary goal, I’ve had some ambitions for a long time. The trap closed. But I see this as a great opportunity, because I find the problem I described really harsh.
Bém wants to solve problems quickly
After all, you are still a member of the ODS… Didn’t you commit a party crime when you helped draft part of the government program and went to Babiš?
It’s definitely a crime. The question is how serious. Everyone perceives it differently. I get various feedbacks from people around me. Someone says, don’t worry about it, it’s a professional issue and it doesn’t matter if Petr or Pavel is there. It is important that there are competent people. But then I hear complaints – you shouldn’t. And I don’t care about it. I am too old and experienced to know that short stories may be interesting but not authoritative. What is authoritative is when I see a problem, and the problem is really big, so I look for its solution and ask myself what else I can do for it.
How and with what do you explain the dramatic increase in mental disorders among children and youth? Sometimes they talk about the “snowflake” generation, which naturally offends them…
They are more sensitive. And they are very dependent on the evaluation of their surroundings, through which they gain self-esteem, self-confidence. The problem is that this reality very often takes place today not in the direct interaction of peer groups and communities, but in the virtual environment of social networks. And this is a space and time that is basically anonymous and where completely different rules apply than in normal human contact. It is a terrain that is seemingly not as threatening, it is safer, but it has one big disadvantage in that it virtualizes the experience.
When it comes to breaking bread in a real-life situation, very often the young and teenagers simply do not have the experience or learned patterns of behavior that would allow them to protect themselves. So they are confronted with the inadequacy, mockery and ridicule of their peers. The ability of children and adolescents to protect themselves from, for example, bullying by their peers is significantly less than it was in previous generations. But there is one more thing that social networks do. I can do whatever I want there, so there’s that kind of overcharging. Who will show, for example, greater drama, who will show a worse cut, who will show a harsher confrontation with some reality. I simply see the results every day in outpatient practice.
Are their adult parents to blame too?
Sure. I see that very often, paradoxically, parents give up. Either because none of the educational borderline interventions meet with success, so they simply give up on it. Or that they see that the children’s cognitive functionality is not enough and prematurely declare them as adults in their consciousness. That’s because with artificial intelligence and the tools available to get some information, the next generation is extremely equipped.
Are they confusing by appearing to be know-it-alls?
Yes, because they have an answer to everything right away. And if they don’t know it, they look it up, ask the AI a question and immediately get the necessary information. Compared to his parents, he may appear to be a know-it-all. But then it is completely forgotten – whether they are children or teenage young people – that they also have their emotional needs. And these are often not perceived, listened to and somehow fulfilled by the parents.
We have described the condition. You will be the national coordinator, what solution do you come up with?
If we now increase the number of psychiatrists at the faculties, it will be reflected in practice in five years at first, rather in ten. But what to do in the meantime? Try to mobilize the network of services and experts we already have. Now we have to do something about emergency services. We need to realign the existing forces. For years, we have been talking about the necessity of deinstitutionalizing psychiatric care, which means removing the priority from psychiatric hospitals, from those large residential institutions. And to offer crisis services established in the community, which are available in place and time and, unlike those of hospitals, do not offer negative stigmatization.
Bém’s political ambitions
Finally, I will ask about politics. You were the mayor of Prague from 2002 to 2010. There are municipal elections next year. Don’t you have the desire and ambition to come back and run for office again, for example for Motorists, who would certainly stand up for you?
I have many friends among Motorists and it is no secret that we come from the same socio-economic background. That we are greatly influenced by Václav Klaus and his view of political reality, of a debt-free future and some reasonable scope of public administration. Today, the motorists represent the “Poděbrady line” of the ODS, they hold it as the only political party in the current Chamber of Deputies. But I have to admit that I didn’t talk to the Motorists about any of their fantasies. In addition, since I am not an influencer and do not know how to handle social networks, I probably could not be a successful politician today.
We men are very often vain, so if they keep telling you – Pavel, come back, it worked for you, you will finally nod after the fiftieth incentive, right?
Again, consider that unlike many others who easily fall for this lure, this fishing lure, I have the advantage of being a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist. I work with people who sometimes suffer from these savior delusions and I have to treat these people. And I get a little bit of feedback. So I try not to give in to these moods, these words of seduction. But you’re definitely right, although it’s not just guys who are vain.
You probably hear this from ordinary people too – there were some affairs under Bém, Kolibřík and Mazánek, but at least something was happening and building in Prague… Doesn’t that motivate you to make a comeback?
15 years ago someone would spit in front of me in line at the grocery store every now and then. And I had to listen to criticism, often very personal and unbridled, which of course was painful. I must say that she gradually knocked out the last remnants of some vanity in me. And today it’s really the opposite. I go to buy bread or milk and hear these words of praise. Yes, it might make me immediately happy, but I immediately go home with it and cognitive work follows, which says – above all, don’t believe it so that you decide on your knees that you’re going to do something you haven’t wanted to do for a long time. This is how I do it.
