The president is not a king – Echo24.cz
Christmas starts today. For many people, the most magical holidays of the year. Holidays that, unlike others, have a very spiritual, personal and private character. We retreat to our homes, to our nearest and dearest. We want to be disturbed as little as possible by the public. We want peace from traffic and politics.
When Miloš Zeman entered Prague Castle in 2013 as the first directly elected president, he established a new tradition. Instead of the traditional New Year’s presidential speech, he came up with a Christmas speech, which he delivers on St. Stephen’s Day, the second day of Christmas.
It is quite unique in Europe. During the Christmas holidays, usually only the monarchs speak to the people. The British monarch traditionally on Christmas Day. Most people cannot imagine Christmas Eve without Queen Elizabeth. But her speech used to be very non-political.
On the other hand, presidents hold back even in countries where they sometimes style themselves in the role of gods, like Emmanuel Macron, who, after being elected to his first mandate in 2017, talked about wanting to be something like Jupiter. The main god of ancient Rome. A ruler elevated above ordinary politics. Today, he has long since sobered up from Jupiterism under the impact of reality. But even in his Jupiterian beginnings he always spoke to the French on New Year’s Day. Like most presidents.
In our country, a considerable part of society lives with the idea that even the Czech president is a certain version of the monarchy. That the residence at Prague Castle should be something in the style of a pulpit, from where great ideas formulating the nation sound. The ambition to see a piece of something magical, fairy-tale even monarchist remains in people.
Miloš Zeman brought people back down to earth from these illusions with his style, character, and demeanor. And none of his potential successors is the type of person who would borderline make the Castle into a strong symbolic place.
With Zeman, it was, for better or for worse, a very civil presidency. Starting with the fact that he definitely did not unite the country, but rather divided it. At this point, it is not clear who will become Zeman’s successor. But no iconic format awaits us. In the best case, it will be a high-quality civilian presidency. Which is not a lot these days.
In addition to the immediate complete opening of the Prague Castle grounds, including all the gardens and moats that Miloš Zeman barricaded with security guards for many years, it would be nice if next Christmas could be done without a presidential speech. New Year’s is a much better occasion than Christmas for our style of presidency.
Unfortunately, politicians don’t take a break from social media even at Christmas, so we see a lot of Christmas presents, sweets and trees. The regular speech of the head of state as a ritual is, after all, a different genre.