Jana Adamcova - persuading Czechs to vote "YES" to the EU
The Czech government recently launched its official campaign ahead of next month's EU referendum. TV viewers have been treated to a series of 30-second ads, featuring EU citizens (played by actors) explaining how membership has helped their country. At the same time billboards have gone up across the country, featuring more EU citizens extolling the virtues of membership. The ad campaign is slick and professional, but will it work? The person in charge of it is the Czech Foreign Ministry's Jana Adamcova. Rob Cameron went to see Jana recently at the ministry, and began by asking her if she enjoyed her work.
"Well, yes. I think you always have positives and negatives. Sometimes I have problems with things not going so fast, or not being flexible, but on the other hand I see that the very strict rules are working and saving me from problems or situations which could be negative."
If you'll forgive a personal observation - you do seem a little young to be co-ordinating a campaign to get your countrymen to vote "Yes" to the EU.
"You're right, I am young. But when I started working in PR, I asked - who is the person who can teach me? Who has been in the business for 10 or 20 years? Who can show me how it works? And they said, well, maybe in the Czech Republic there are a handful of people who've been in the business for ten years. But then you have to learn yourself. And here [at the Foreign Ministry], it's the same. I would be very happy if I had a teacher who was 50 or 60 years old, who was the leader of the department, who had the experience in communication. But you don't find anyone like that here. This is the situation throughout the Czech Republic, in many fields: that the people from the early 1990s are still not the experienced ones, the best ones. Because the business - the communication business - is still developing, is still not on the level it should be. So it means many things have to be done by young people who might not be that experienced, but there's no-one else."
Let's talk about the EU referendum campaign, which was launched on May 1st. Talk me through it - you have these billboards with the Portuguese fisherman and the Spanish bus driver and the TV spots with the Greek café owner and so on, all extolling the benefits of joining the European Union, how it's helped their countries, and also this phrase "Welcome to the Community". Do you think this really is going to appeal to the Czech mindset?
"Well, first of all this is the first phase, we will be a little more pushy in the second phase, two weeks before the referendum, where we will say please don't forget to go and vote. This is very important. This first phase is saying the EU is just a community of normal people like you. That their countries came through joining the EU, they also had their problems but they managed it. We want to tell people why shouldn't we manage it? Why should we end up worse off than Portuguese or Austrian people?"
Czechs are often described as being rather lukewarm towards the EU, less enthusiastic than Poles or Slovaks or Hungarians. Do you think that's fair, or is it just an invention of the media?
"We have to count on typical Czech behaviour. The Czechs always criticise everything, they are never happy with anything, you always do everything wrong. So what we wanted to do with this campaign was to tell the Czechs that we like them! We like ourselves. And I think they have to hear that. It's like with a little child. If you always tell him you're wrong, you'll never manage to do that and that's bad, then he or she will not manage to do it. I think we must function here as a kind of teacher who tells his or her children that they are good. And this is what we want to tell the whole Czech Republic - yes, we are good!"
Do you think Czechs are sufficiently aware of all the "other" benefits of the European Union? Often the discussion concentrates on the economic benefits, on what it will mean for people's salaries, the conditions in which they work and so on. But there will also be a general cultural shift. Do you think Czechs are ready for this change as well?
"Everyone is afraid of change, but when I started working here the first thing I thought I have to do is to switch the debate about EU accession from "money" to "values". Because I don't think it's right that the debate over EU accession should be concentrated only on how much money we'll get. So therefore this campaign shows the EU in a little different light, in a light of a community of people. Actually we did some research, and there some quite interesting results in what people want from the EU. They want a change in the public sector - they want the public sector to be more cultivated. And this is something I was very happy about. I said 'Wow - finally, something other than money!' And I think this what we need. We need to learn a little how to behave, not only in the state administration, or on a political level, but also as people. And this is something that I'm happy the Czech people want."
Parliament recently voted to hold the referendum on Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th of June. Are you superstitious?
"No I'm not! But we definitely won't write 'Friday' and '13th' together. We always say '13th of June'. But I'm not happy about the dates, because I think lots of people will leave town on Friday afternoon or go swimming on Saturday or whatever. More people would vote on a Sunday or a Monday."
Maybe the weather will be really horrible on June 13th - 14th, and that could be good for the referendum.
Look into your crystal ball for me. What will the result of the referendum be?
"Well, this is only wishful thinking. I would be really happy to have a turnout of more than 60 percent."
And of that 60 percent, how many percent will say "Yes"?
"I would say...72 percent."
Here's a difficult question to end with - if the Czechs say "No" to the EU on June 13th-14th, what will you - Jana Adamcova - do?
"What would I do? Well, I don't want to think about it. Maybe I'd go and get drunk!"
And for more information about the Czech Republic's official "Yes" campaign, see www.euroskop.cz
