Havel disturbed by “coarseness” of Czech politics as eggs, fists fly

The former president Václav Havel has said he is disturbed at what he called the increasingly coarse nature of Czech politics, something he believes will only widen the gap between people and their politicians. Just as Mr Havel was speaking another rowdy election meeting got underway in Brno, with punches thrown at young protestors trying to disrupt a Social Democrat rally.

Václav Havel, photo: CTK

There were rowdy scenes at the Social Democrats’ election meeting in Brno on Monday, as several young protestors were physically attacked by supporters of the party. Footage recorded by TV Prima clearly showed one of the youngsters punched in the face by a member of the public as he’s dragged away by security guards. Earlier several youths had thrown eggs at the stage - echoing last week’s mass egg-throwing in Prague. Politics is certainly taking a strange turn in the Czech Republic, and former president Václav Havel – receiving a human rights prize in Plzeň – told reporters he was alarmed by it:

“Politics in this country has become somewhat coarser. I have to say this worries me, as it could lead to a widening gap between society and its politicians – certainly it contributes towards people’s image of politicians. Throwing eggs at politicians is not just a bit of fun, although there are of course elements of fun in it. But the coarseness I refer to is also evident on the parties’ billboards. The parties have more billboards ridiculing rival candidates than positive billboards presenting their own.”

Photo: CTK

But have things really changed? Vladimíra Dvořáková, politics lecturer at Prague’s School of Economics, believes they have:

“What is new, and what is really quite important is that some form of mass mobilization has been used in the streets, that has started to use methods that are near to violence. You know, an egg is not a weapon. But it wasn’t just one egg, and what followed was aimed at trying to destroy any discussion. So from this point of view, this is really dangerous and this is something new that has not been here before.”

Vladimíra Dvořáková points out that such disruptive tactics were first used by the Nazis and other fascist groups in the 1930s. Parties hired bodyguards to protect their meetings, and the situation soon deteriorated as those bodyguards became thugs used to attack other parties’ meetings. Not for a moment would she compare teenage egg-throwers in Prague to Nazi agitators, but what we’ve seen in the last few weeks, she says, is not a healthy trend.