A novel way to get out the vote: free beer for students

As elections draw closer, political parties and civic activists are doing their best to encourage people to vote. Brewer Stanislav Bernard, a right-leaning former candidate for the Czech Senate, has come up with his own campaign. He is offering beer to young Czechs in order to encourage them to vote.

Brewer Stanislav Bernard has promised kegs of his Bernard beer to the first 250 secondary school classes in which 85 percent or more of eligible voters pledge to go to the polls. All they have to do is send in a list of signatures confirmed by their teacher. The brewery also has a thousand crates of beer available to third-level students. Stanislav Bernard outlines the reason behind this campaign:

Stanislav Bernard

“The situation here in the Czech Republic is really serious. People are annoyed by political affairs and by the way politicians behave. Young people are free, they want to enjoy themselves, and in this atmosphere of frustration there is a real threat that they won’t go to elections. This is really serious, because these people will live here in the future and they will have nothing to inherit. So I tried to think of a way to bring them to the polling stations.”

In a recent mock election of 15- to 19-year-olds held by the NGO People in Need, students clearly preferred right wing parties. So is Mr Bernard, himself a former Senate candidate, trying to encourage the mostly right-leaning young voters to cast their ballots in order to affect the election results?

“I am not hiding the fact that I support right-wing parties. Right wing parties are trying to save money, they try to implement reforms. The biggest problem is that previous elections ended in a draw and the parties were not able to carry out reforms. I am not telling the students who they should vote for: that is their own decision. I want them to go to the elections and not stay at home.”

Czechs are known as the worlds’ leading consumers of beer and the campaign of Bernard brewery has already met with great interest among students. However, Stanislav Bernard denies any suggestion that he is supporting alcoholism among the young:

“I think it’s a stupid accusation. One keg of beer for a class of 25 doesn’t mean that I support alcoholism. I am one hundred percent sure that every class will drink beer at the graduation party no matter whether they get it for free or not. Anyway, the voting age as well as the age limit for drinking alcohol in the Czech Republic is 18 years.”

Illustrative photo: CTK

Mr Bernard’s family-owned brewery has already received dozens of applications from schools all over the country and it has good news for those who won’t be among the first 250. Thanks to private donations they have increased the number of kegs to 570 and they are very likely to do it again.