Prague is the center of post-communism, it worships the past at the ballot box
One of the popular clichés says that the capital “saves the republic” in elections. It does not seem. Even its inhabitants are subject to nostalgia and populism. Just a different kind than people in other parts of the country.
In the fabled nineties, a “joke” circulated in the Czech capital, according to which even the tennis racket of the then-Citizen Democratic President Václav Klaus would win the elections there. Thirty years later, current preferences look set to win here Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS).
A retired gynecologist who, even if elected, does not want to give up his mandate in the Chamber of Deputies, or even his medical role. And which in the ideological fight for the rights of drivers denies harmful effect of automobile exhaust on human health.
The fact that her right-wing coalition Spolu pro Praha put a female candidate at the head of the party testifies to her self-confidence, which does not engage in arrogance in anything, as the civil democrats demonstrated in the first post-post-apocalypse decade.
It is so obvious that Czech politics has been spinning in circles for years. And it is also obvious that the inhabitants of the capital vote as populist and nostalgic as the rest of the republic. Only their populism is the populism of the richer class, and local nostalgia is nostalgia for the “free” nineties, not for the “certainties” of communism.
In the grips of memories
The median age in the Czech Republic is now approximately 40 years. Only a minority of the population reached the age of majority before 1989 could actively relate to the regime in some way – for example by joining the party. Nevertheless, the cultural elites in particular do not stop raising the question of the criminal legacy of the previous regime as the absolutely most fundamental topic of today.
This is currently illustrated, for example, by the discussion between presidential candidates Danuša Nerudová and Petr Pavlo regarding the honoring of the Mašín brothers, a topic that seems to have dropped out of 2005.
So far, Andrej Babiš is blamed for his communist past perhaps even more often than his activity as the second richest Czech capitalist, who, like many others, got rich through privatization. And before the last parliamentary elections, a group of actors glimpsed into the past filmed a clip No more queues for bananas, pleading for the KSČM to drop out of the lower house of parliament. The fact that their wish came true, now the coalition Together for Prague presents as one of the biggest successes of last year’s elections.
When a person is thirty today, he hears practically all his life that his future should be determined by his attitude towards the former political system, which he did not experience and could not influence in any way. And while in the childhood of today’s thirty-somethings, this preoccupation made sense, today it is becoming more and more empty: We can’t place anything perspective, so we will at least allow you to be afraid of what was – as if the politician was making it clear.
Moreover, the obsession of cultural elites with communism has a negative impact on the level of the Czech public debate, from which nuances have disappeared because of it. In the text for Diary Referendum Martin Pleva, a teacher, historian and left-wing activist, interestingly described this some time ago: “The treacherous clarity and simplicity of the black-and-white view of the world – of politics, history and so on – is the main charm of post-communism. Good is equal to democracy and capitalism, i.e. the West, The USA, possibly the European Union (here the anti-communists are already splitting), Evil is the left, Russia, China and the like.” Post-communism, adds Pleva, is mainly the ideology of the successful in the Czech Republic. Either “egoists” – typical ODS voters – or “moralists” who invoke Havel or Brussels.
In other words, post-communism in the Czech Republic is mainly the domain of the population of Prague and other large cities that are constantly reproducing. In many cases, one cannot avoid the impression that it is the nineties they remember similarly nostalgically like some members of the oldest generation during the communist era: They were young, free, the world was at their feet, they became winners. They do not have much understanding for those for whom social change did not bring victory, as well as for more sober scientific assessment transformation.
Out of the way, sir
Anyone who has ever watched the announcement of election results has undoubtedly experienced this. At the beginning, a nationalist or populist candidate like Andrej Babiš or Miloš Zeman quickly jumps out. Later, however, right-wing or liberal politicians will start to catch up with him – that’s when voters from bigger cities start showing up. “Prague saved us again”, can often be heard from the mouths of those commenting on the situation.
But do the residents of the capital really vote that much smarter and more morally than other parts of the country? It does not seem. They too are subject to nostalgia and populism, but in both cases they are adapted to local conditions. In short, in the logic of post-communism, a candidate like Bohuslav Svoboda falls into the “correct” column: He is right-wing, his party opposes Babiš, the communists and Putin – thus he likes freedom and democracy. He is a good candidate, regardless of what he specifically says or does.
At the same time, it is evident from the opinions of the Spolu coalition that many residents of the capital vote mainly with regard to their economic benefit, comfort and maintaining privileged positions. He therefore votes for maintaining low property taxes, for as little regulation as possible of investment housing and for the possibility of driving as far as possible under the Dust Gate. At the same time, they completely ignore these attitudes developments in other European metropoliseswhere voters, in the context of the climate crisis and pandemic experience, emphasize the development of non-motorized transport and the cultivation of public space – and where the housing market not afraid to regulate more significantly nor centre-right governments.
Elites often blame supporters of Andrej Babiš and other populist or nationalist politicians for thinking only of their narrow economic interests and voting regardless of the actual behavior of their preferred candidate. For people who have more economic and cultural capital, can be educated, travel, read in more languages - in short, they have more chances to understand the world – but such behavior is far less unspeakable.
In just two weeks, we will see whether post-communism and 90s nostalgia will once again win over content at the Prague ballot boxes.
The author is the editor of the Voxpot.cz server.
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