Petr Pavel warns of the dangers of migration and made young people happy on his stream with the phrase six seven.
The head of state, Petr Pavel, answered a wide range of questions from citizens in the new episode of Ask the President. During the live broadcast, he urged the fight against disinformation, even suggesting occasional detox from social media, spoke about the conflict in the Middle East and how it affects us indirectly, and rejected the label "leader of the opposition" used by some. He also delighted viewers with lighter topics, such as celebrating Mr. Svěrák, his relationship with bodyguards, and addressed the question of where Mr. President got his tie from.
The regular show "Ask the President" provides people with an opportunity to ask Pavel questions directly. While some questions had a lighter and playful tone, most were interested in how the head of state perceives the current conflict between Iran, Israel, and the USA. Pavel immediately stated that he definitely does not intend to downplay the conflict, but reassured viewers that there is a very low probability of the conflict directly affecting us. Instead, he confirmed that we can expect an increase in the price of not only fuel but also other commodities.
Global Market Fluctuations
Indirectly, the conflict affects us through rising oil and gas prices on global markets, which, as Pavel mentioned, we could have noticed ourselves leads to an increase in fuel prices.
"Estimates say that globally, agricultural sector production will be 10-15 percent lower, which are numbers that will obviously be reflected in food prices."
He explained that the war will also impact the price of fertilizer. It is also necessary to anticipate that most of these negative effects will manifest over time. If the conflict does not end soon, it is said that we should prepare for market fluctuations in the second half of the year.
“If the conflict in the Middle East were to escalate beyond the current borders, we would have to consider the possibility of a larger wave of migration, which would mean that we would be operating in a completely different level of threat.”
However, he himself assumes that such an escalation is unlikely to happen.
Six Seven
What stirred the internet the most was a part of the broadcast when Pavel decided to fulfill a rather unconventional request. Someone asked him if he could say the popular phrase six seven.
"Even knowing that it doesn't really mean much, but it makes children and some teenagers happy. And I like making people happy when it costs me nothing. So, six seven."
He didn't forget to accompany the remark with necessary hand gestures, and from a short snippet, it almost instantly went viral. On the Instagram account of novinky.cz, the twenty-second video gathered over a million views. Apparently, the president was right, and it did make someone happy.
Victims of Disinformation
According to the president, each of us lives in two different worlds. The first is the real one, and the second is within the depths of social media and the internet. While the second is full of hatred, insults, depression, and malice, the real world is very different. He would recommend everyone occasionally detox from social media.
"Unfortunately, today we are surrounded by disinformation, that is, purposeful spreading of lies quite extensively. Distinguishing what is true and what is disinformation is a challenging task."
The best way to avoid them is considered to be having multiple sources. Ideally, sources that we have verified. He himself always tries to present the most objective reality. However, sometimes it is not so much about verification as it is about blind faith. According to him, some political actors take advantage of this and build their own group of "believers." They then believe what they want without considering any objectivity.
At the end of the show, Petr Pavel thanked everyone for their attention and ended the broadcast with wishes for a beautiful evening and the promise that he would look forward to another time.
Sources: original text, Petr Pavel's Facebook, novinky.cz
