Konečná has degrees in engineering and law. She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a non-partisan candidate for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia in 2002. She joined the party in 2005. She was reelected in the 2006 election. Konečná was the vice-chair of the Foreign Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and a member of the Committee on Environmental Issues. She was also included in the Czech delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 2004 to 2014. In 2010 and 2013, Konečná was reelected to the Lower House of the Czech Parliament.
She fought against the installation of an American Missile Defence System in the Czech Republic in 2007, calling for a referendum on it. She claimed that the defence system would turn Czechs into the blind tools of American globalist policy. Years later, Konečná stood up sharply against constructing any military base in the Czech Republic and condemned the US attack against Qasem Soleimani, suggesting that it endangered Europe and destabilized its security.
Konečná first became a “temporary MEP” before the elected Czech MEPs took up their mandate in 2004. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 and reelected for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia in 2019. During her mandate, Konečná has focused on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, palm oil, health care and the environment.
The MEP has called for “balanced” relations with Russia, supporting the Kremlin on various issues. In 2015, Konečná said that the murder of Boris Němcov, the state of democracy in Russia and the downing of MH 17 are unrelated events creating an atmosphere of hysteria and Russophobia in the EU. She said the EP was incapable of judging the state of democracy in Russia. She was highly critical of those objecting to Czech Communist MP Zdeněk Ondráček’s visit to Donetsk and Luhansk, especially because no serious objections were raised by these critics when the chairman of the Czech Senate visited Taiwan. Kateřina Konečná published an article claiming that the EU wants to delete historical memory because they claim that World War II was started by both Germany and Russia. Next time, she suspects, they will say that the only aggressor was Russia. Konečná said she was the only Czech MEP who voted against a document on the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe. The representative also took Russia’s side in the debate on the removal of the statue of Marshal Ivan Konev, emphasizing that some politicians are trying to rewrite history and saying that their views are “Russophobic.” In 2020, she announced on her Facebook page that she signed a proposal calling for the immediate lifting of sanctions against third countries, including Russia and Iran, arguing that some of these countries aided Europe during the coronavirus crisis. Konečná has been also a long-time supporter of lifting the sanctions against third countries, Russia amongst them.
During the events of the April of 2021, when Russia significantly boosted their military presence on its border with Ukraine, Konečná somewhat surprisingly slammed NATO and Ukraine for moving its military forces to the Russian border. She later posted a map with marked NATO bases in Europe and Asia near the Russian border, suggesting that NATO is trying to encircle it. During the diplomatic crisis between the Czech Republic and Russia caused by the revelations of Russian perpetration of the 2014 ammunition depot explosion in Vrbětice, Konečná strongly doubted the Russian guilt. She suggested that the event was a fraud aimed against Russia, borderline conspiring about US’s involvement in the affair. In a video published later, Konečná accused other Czech politicians, who condemned Russian involvement in Czech internal affairs, of warmongering. She then again emphasised the need of the Czech Republic to have good relations with the Russian federation.
During an interview in the Czech DV TV before the 2019 EP elections, Konečná said that the Communist Party and she personally enforce the interests of people not of supranational corporations. She said that capitalism is bad for the EU because it creates huge income inequalities. She doubts the reports of Czech intelligence services ́and did not believe that the elections would be influenced by Russia. Konečná has long criticized sanctions against Russia and stressed that EU Member States are not consistent on this issue, citing Nord Stream 2 as an example. She thinks Russia should be a partner for the bloc.
The MEP commented on French President Emmanuel Macron's criticism towards China, pointing out that the situation in the EU is not good enough to allow for criticising China. The EU parliamentarian is generally supportive of Beijing. Regarding the national security law imposed on Hong Kong, she praised Chinese efforts and called the city the “symbol of decolonization.” The protests surrounding the approval of the law – she claimed – was the result of Western propaganda. The MEP supports the “non-violent convergence of forcibly breakaway regions, including Taiwan, until full unification and completion of the decolonization process without external influence.”
Kateřina Konečná is also a stern and consistent critic of current Turkey under the leadership of President Erdogan. She reacted angrily to the effort of Turkish president Erdogan to turn ancient byzantine temples into mosques, criticizing the EU for not only leaving his behaviour without reaction but also for continuing to support his regime monetarily. Konečná continued her critique of the Turkish regime, dubbing it a “nationalist, expansive power” which threatens its neighbour, Greece, with war and blackmails the EU.
Konečná is strongly anti-American, associating the USA and the CIA with torture, claiming that the CIA’s inhuman practices were being spread to Europe. Konečná described the recognition of Kosovo to be a crucial mistake that might have led to unrest in Ukraine (Maidan in 2013), Scotland (Scottish independence referendum in 2014) and Catalonia (Catalan Self-determination referendum in 2014). She also accused the USA of waging war against Chinese technology and taking other countries as hostages, adding that it was the USA who used technology to spy on politicians of other states, as leaked by Edward Snowden. Konečná also claimed that the USA is trying to blackmail China and Russia in order to exclude their companies from big governmental contracts, such as the implementation of 5G network and finishing of the Dukovany power plant. She continues to criticise the USA on many occasions, for example in the case of Serbia’s planned suit of NATO, because of the USA’s use of uranium-enhanced munition during the bombardment of Serbia in the 1990s. Another case was the anniversary of the My Lai massacre when the US Army murdered several hundred Vietnamese civilians in 1968.
(Updated: 13/7/2021)
Konečná expressed their support of the new investment deal between China and the EU, claiming that the EU needs to practice an “open” economic policy and not only be dependent on the USA.
Konečná commented on the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by saying, among other things, that the US is trying to weaken Chinese influence anywhere. She also said she is against eliminating companies just because they are from a certain country.
She asked Josep Borrell about cancelling “sanctions and economic blockades imposed on third countries because they extremely threaten health and good living conditions of people (not only) during a pandemic” He stated that “EU sanctions are targeted against people responsible for politics or activities that EU wants to influence.”
Konečná commented on the removal of the Koněv statue from Prague 6 in an interview for Parlamentní listy. According to her, it is a sign of rewriting history. She also commented on the fact that the Czech Communist Party (KSČM) received masks and goggles as a gift from the Chinese Communist Party. She said it was given to hospitals and that the Czech Communist Party had a good relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.
Kateřina Konečná wrote on Facebook as a reaction to an article on novinky.cz that “China and Cuba are sending paramedics to Italy, Putin is sending them medical equipment and army experts. In spite of that, we are still hearing people insulting China, claiming that it only wants to profit from the epidemic. We are also blaming Russia for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus. Constant hatred toward Russia and China is supposed to cover up Western countries’ failure in the organisation of healthcare.”
