Prime Minister Fiala and with him all the "five-coalition" candidates (among them especially the People's Party, which has been in the political abyss for years) in the upcoming regional, Senate, and this year's parliamentary elections (it's going to be repeated over and over again) have it "blue in the face". Why? An unexpected gift fell from the heavens to the decimated, inefficient government that does not serve this country well: a pressure low centered somewhere over northern Serbia "poured" a gigantic hole of water over most of the Czech Republic and caused flooding. And this is a great opportunity for the government to finally show some action and shut the mouths of all the naysayers who have been criticising it - allegedly unfairly - for so many things.
Therefore, we heard the warning and frightening news of the coming apocalypse on live TV just a few days before we even saw the first black cloud. Not even a drop of water had fallen yet, but all sorts of government politicians were steaming on television to create an atmosphere of terror and the greatest fear with gloomy, serious and worried faces. The extraordinary press conference at the Cabinet Office - under the baton of Rakusan, Hladik and Výborny - was a frightening spectacle because it was meant to induce terror.
When a politician creates an atmosphere of terror, he can "fish" unexpected gains out of it. He is happy to know that he is now on the screen and his words are finally being heeded. Finally, he can demonstrate his importance, his political ability, his managerial decisiveness and his efficiency through television. Simply to show that he is the most competent person in his position. Such an opportunity, not least a fortnight before the elections, cannot be left to lie. Everything that can be taken from it must be taken. That is why the "action" on the TV news, why the trips with camera escorts to the affected areas. But does it help? Does it divert the raging rivers? Will it persuade the clouds full of water to avoid our country? And is this what a politician is supposed to do? Is this what he does? Isn't he supposed to be elsewhere, organizing politics so that those affected can be helped as quickly and efficiently as possible?
The floods are not only a blessing for the politically clueless and in every respect desperate Fiala, they are also a welcome gift for Finance Minister Stanjoura. Has he not been able to explain next year's budget very credibly? Who cares now. After all, there are floods and people expecting "their" state to help them at least a little in times of need. And it will be happy to pretend to help. At least it will be able to distribute, through its bureaucrats and underlings, more money (debt - non-debt) without having to explain why it hasn't set aside money for flood disasters and will easily go beyond its promised budget limits because "nobody expected this". Should we send more to North Moravia and less to Kiev? We certainly cannot expect that from Fialy. But what we can certainly expect is the repeated mention before various elections that "the government was there with you", that "the government warned in advance", that "the government arranged", that "the government took care of", that "without this government ...".
After all, this is nothing new. We are harvesting what we allowed the state to harvest a few years ago. That's how the "wonderful state" broke into our lives in the Covid era. Let's look there for the roots of the present state. Back then, the government, politicians of all colours, together with the state, pretended that without them there would be "a freezer truck for the dead on every street" (remember the words of the Socialist minister Hamáček?). We have allowed politicians and the state to close schools for a whole year, to ban entry to restaurants, to tell us what shops will be open and at what times we can enter them under threat of sanctions and repression. The state gained so much power that we could even leave our homes with difficulty. Do we remember? And it is difficult to push back such a powerful state.
The recklessness, the political calculating and blatant political recklessness, the blatant shaking and looking forward to, for example, the People's Minister of Agriculture, Výborný, "speaking" on television and people - frightened in advance by the government - swallowing his every word (and hopefully finally voting for the People's Party), has been truly disgusting in recent days.
I have a thousand things against Fiala's five-coalition government, but such politically calculated (the vernacular has a more succinct and precise term for it), "action-oriented" planned behavior with the sole and obvious goal of grabbing what it can before the upcoming elections in the face of those who are truly suffering in the floods is to me a diminished demonstration of the misery of this government.
Ivo Strejček, 15. 9. 2024
Václav Klaus Institute/ gnews - RoZ_07
English 
Czech