When opinion polls this winter suggested that the Pirates-STAN coalition could win the parliamentary elections, the Czechia looked like a country that was making fun of Europe. Are you serious? some politicians and journalists in Brussels asked. Are you saying that the oligarch will be replaced by a nonconformist with dreadlocks with the past of the Estebek informant?
We are half a year away and Czech politics before the elections looks a bit more “traditional”. The owner of the media house and an unlimited bank account is back in the position of the hottest candidate for the next prime minister, while the owner of the dreadlocks has earned criticism for the most botched election campaign of the season.
The elections remain open, of course, but the mood on board has changed. The victory of Pirates and STAN seems rather unlikely, and commentators on the networks compete in arguments as to why this is so. One possible explanation for the time being remains rather aside: that the weak point is Ivan Bartoš himself.
Easy target
When Bartoš returned to the head of his party years ago, everyone considered it a logical step. The most prominent and politically most skilled pirate was deservedly described as one of the greatest talents of Czech politics with a bright future. However, pulling the unseen party into parliament and not getting lost in television debates is a much easier discipline than convincing a third of all voters of the competence to run the state. And most likely it has nothing to do with Bartoš’s intelligence, honesty or ability to lead.
The author of this text has no doubt that Ivan Bartoš will lead the government at least as well as Babiš, Sobotka, Nečas, etc. At the same time, he doubts that a substantial part of the Czech electorate, which has recently looked at its premieres more critically, thinks the same. There is actually only one problem: that in the Czech Republic nonconformists do not win elections at various levels.
Dealing with one’s appearance in 2021 may seem awkward, but parliamentary elections are a show of majority taste – and it follows its own rules. That is, even those that were long ago put together by the owners of the only correct identity card, when they hammered into society the principle that people with strangely groomed or overgrown hair should be wary. Yes, it has been a long time, but in the meantime, indoctrinated crowds have raised their children and managed to pass on something to them.
For a non-conformist with dreadlocks, this means an unpleasant thing: Czechs and Czechs, whose voices he needs, are ready to believe even the greatest stupidity that his political competitors can invent. For example, it will force the public to house refugees in their homes. Or that he’s a junkie, while an alcoholic wouldn’t mind. In short, a non-conformist with dreadlocks becomes too easy a target in a conformist society like the one here.
The biggest mistake?
Of course, the pirates and Bartoš himself can beat it up with something. Have a good campaign where the chairman’s charisma and popularity stand out. Or to convince young voters who are not out of their minds and are going to vote for the Pirates to come to the polls in large numbers. But this is not known to be easy.
Bartoš’s group has probably made and will still make a lot of mistakes in the campaign, which are now being talked about. But the biggest mistake may have come from earlier times: namely, that they underestimated the Czech distrust of everything different and distinctive. That they did not show more modesty and did not entrust themselves to the leading hands of the chairman of the Mayors, Vít Rakušan, who has similar views in many ways, does not push the saw in their enforcement and suits the Czech conformity infinitely more than Bartoš. Telling people that the mayor of Cologne wants to move refugees into their houses would probably be more complicated.
Read also: The Prime Minister is lying about us to scare the public and distract, says pirate MP
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