“I don’t think anything nice about him, he cuts the salaries of police officers. Our work is more than demanding, and if you take inflation into account, it’s not right,” policeman Bohuš confirms the Austrian’s prediction about an hour and a half before the start of the debate. “He certainly won’t convince me, I’ll listen to what he says, but I don’t have a good opinion of the whole government and especially him, because he doesn’t respect the police,” the middle-aged man describes his attitude. “Under Andrej Babiš, salaries increased and now the standard of living is going down.”
Already an hour before the official start of the debate, the restaurant was already full, according to the waitress, this is the case only on weekends, on weekdays, so many people never go there. At first impression, it is clear that the Austrian does not expect a debate with his supporters, on the contrary, people describe in very emotional answers why they do not like the chairman of the Starosts.
He often talks, for example, about the fact that he let thousands of Ukrainians into the Czech Republic, “who are favored over Czech citizens”, or about the fact that the Austrian is a “censor” who should be “closed and walled off”. When asked who they consider to be the ideal political leader, for example, the name of former SPD MP Lubomír Volný, who years ago tried to make a name for himself with the Volný Blok project, comes up.
But among the arrivals there were also people with less sharp opinions. “I am neither a fan nor an opponent. If he had done certain things differently, I might have thought about voting for him,” says pensioner Stanislava shortly before the start of the debate. “It bothers me that there are fights between the young and the old, I don’t like it,” she explains. “We are a generation that has worked all our lives, and the state will not give us anything now,” he concludes.
The Austrian brought a strong marketing team
Vít Rakušan doesn’t come to Karviná without a plan in advance. The STAN movement significantly strengthened the marketing team. For example, the Slovak strategist Michal Repa, who last year helped President Petar Pavlo to the Castle, and before that he was also involved in the campaign of the Slovak head of state Zuzana Čaputová, on which he collaborated with another reinforcement of the Starosts, Martin Burgr, is now working on his promotion. As the e15 newspaper reporter finds out on the spot, these are not the only reinforcements of the marketing department.
Anna Zemanová also joined the team, who in turn worked in the campaign of Danuš Nerudová or Jan Čižinský’s Praha sebo movement. Johana Bázlerová, author of the successful Instagram account @jsemvobraze, which has almost 200,000 followers, was also on the scene. When asked if she works for the STAN movement, she answered affirmatively: it is said to be an external collaboration. Until recently, Bázlerová worked in the office of Senate President Miloš Vystrčilo (ODS).
The new blood in the veins of the Mayor’s marketing strategy can be seen, for example, in the fact that the Austrian’s entire performance in the Karvina restaurant is being streamed by the company Fame Play, already during the debate, short clips from the performance appear on social networks, in which the Minister of the Interior in a sweatshirt can be seen debates with indiscriminate critics.
During the evening alone, the performance garnered around 80,000 views on the X social network, while the broadcast of the debate was also streamed on the Facebook and Instagram social networks. It almost looks as if the American model of political marketing has arrived in Czech politics, which relies mainly on the activity of the leader and his media visibility. It doesn’t have to end with traditional social networks, as in the Insider podcast hosted by Tomáš Jirsa and Michal Půr, the Minister of the Interior indicated that he is also thinking about the Chinese platform TikTok, which last year the National Office for Cyber and Information Security identified as a security threat.
But back to the actual content of the debate. Vít Rakušan arrived at the pub in the Mizerov district of Karvina half an hour before the start. The place of the event itself was obviously chosen carefully, it is not a better cafe or pub where the local dignitaries would meet, but an honest brew of the fourth price, which a journalist from Prague would probably describe as the cult Severka from the TV series Most. Even the Austrian himself drinks Radegast beer during the entire performance.
We also want to see the dosimeter!
When the Minister of the Interior makes his way through the packed hall to his team at the back of the establishment, one of the more distant tables says: “For God’s sake, don’t make people crazy, we want to see the dosimeter too!”, i.e. an allusion to the Dosimeter corruption case of Prague councilor Petr Hlubuček. As it soon turns out, the exclamation of one of the guests is a harbinger of the atmosphere of the next two hours.
After a while, other visitors join in with shouts. “He is the epitome of arrogance, a Prague scumbag,” says a middle-aged man with relief. “Hey fashon!” flows in the next few seconds through the modest interior of Pivnice Centrum. From the first moment when the Minister of the Interior takes the microphone and greets the local audience, it is clear that he will not have an easy time today.
“Go to hell,” replies one of the guests of the establishment, with the traditional emphasis on the first syllable, to the minister’s warm “Good evening”. Even a seemingly innocent comment about the fact that the Austrian was not visiting the Silesian city for the first time will receive a negative reaction accompanied by hissing from the incoming residents.
The concept of the debate is simple, the Austrian, who has security at his back, has no opening presentation in which he tries to summarize the result of the government of which he is a member. Guests ask questions from the beginning. “I want to ask: when will you resign? What you set out to do, you ruined!” chants from the crowd at the start of the debate.
The Austrian has to deal with local resistance from the start. To the displeasure of the guests, the chairman of the Starosts replies that he does not intend to resign, for which the audience repays him again by shouting: “Resign!”. Throughout the debate, locals not only asked questions into the prepared microphone, but also shouted them randomly across the room. But even the questions put into the microphone are often given in an emotional way, some raised their voices considerably.
Resign, fascist!
Cries of “Resign!” or possibly “Fascist!” are randomly interspersed throughout the evening. In none of the cases, however, does the entire crowd get carried away, it is obvious that they want to hear what the Deputy Prime Minister came to the “lion’s den” with, as one of the inquiring guests himself described the local restaurant. The dirty insults of the Minister of the Interior leave him cold, but the Austrian reacts to the label “fascist”: “Telling me, whose grandfather spent four years in a concentration camp during the Second World War, that I am a fascist is disgusting,” he comments.
The Austrian had to deal with a really wide range of issues in the Karvina beer hall, from the alleged favoritism of Ukrainians over Czechs to the situation in Liberty Ostrava, the postal option, care for the disabled and the situation of young families, to the busyness of the prison system, digitization or freedom of speech. Despite the heated atmosphere, the Minister of the Interior manages to maintain an unchanging tone, he tries to explain his position to those present on complex issues, but he rarely succeeds. It must be added that some of the originally asked questions did not contain any questions, so the Austrian could not respond to them.
After an hour of debate, it became clear that the local residents did not only come to ask questions about the problems being solved by the Ministry of the Interior, but also about other activities of Petr Fiala’s government. Thus, Víto Rakušan gradually becomes a punching bag into which visitors relieve themselves. An independent observer had to ask himself how much more the Minister of the Interior has to endure. But he surprisingly held his own and acknowledged, for example, a mistake in the case of hanging a large canvas on the building of his ministry, on which Russian President Vladimir Putin was depicted in a body bag. He also admits that the tax on extraordinary profits of banks and energy companies was not successful, when thanks to it the state failed to get the planned tens of billions of crowns for the state budget.
The Minister of the Interior also received applause
Around the middle of the debate, there was also a rare moment of applause after the Austrian stood up for the intervention of the police during the tragic attack on the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, which shook the Czech Republic at the end of last year. In the whole debate, however, this moment remained alone, apart from the tepid closing applause, the Austrian did not receive a positive reaction.
After the debate, it is clear that the interior minister did not come to convince people who think of Ukraine as a “fascist regime” or who label him as a fascist to vote for him. This is also evident in the visitors who were approached after the debate. “He convinced me that he’s bullshitting, I don’t believe him, he’s detached from reality, let him try to live on his pension,” says the pensioner, who did not wish to be named. Apparently none of the members of the current ruling coalition of five will ever convince this part of the population of their qualities.
It was obviously a media intervention for the Austrian team that cannot be overlooked. Several journalists from Prague newsrooms were on the scene and it is clear that his output will resonate in the media space for several more days and there is a good chance that it will be noticed by the voters of the current government.
As the chairman of STAN himself mentioned in the Insider podcast, if one of the current government parties does not convince the disappointed voters of the coalition of five to support it again, then the next government will not be formed by the Mayors, Pirates, ODS, TOP 09 or the People’s Party. “Even if the TOGETHER coalition succeeds and STAN remains at six percent, we will not give it. If we want a similar plan of the government, then it is necessary that the other parties, whether the Pirates or us, grow up,” he said in the podcast. The plan for the final two years of government is so clear: not to convince opposition voters, but those who resented the government for lackluster performances.
Austrian debates without censorship
- The head of the STAN movement and Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan started his tour of the Czech Republic at a “debate without censorship” in Karviná, during which he wants to try to revive the preferences of the second strongest government party. In the Pivnice Centrum restaurant, the Deputy Prime Minister had to deal with a stormy atmosphere, as his opponents in particular arrived at the meeting with him, whom he did not convince with persistent answers. However, that was apparently not even the purpose of his trip.
- A few days ago, Vít Rakušan released a video on his social networks in which he announced that it was time to change the approach of his movement. He spoke out against the compromise governance of Petr Fiala’s cabinet, declaring in the video that it is necessary to start doing things right. The former mayor of Kolín wants to convince about the new approach at a meeting with citizens in places where his movement has long-term below-average results.
- In Karviná, where he began his pilgrimage to new voters, only about nine and a half percent of voters voted for the Pirates and Mayors coalition in 2021, i.e. almost eight percentage points below the national result. So are the other cities the Home Secretary plans to visit this spring, so it’s no wonder he described on the Insider podcast that he’s going to the “worst regions” for debates, where he expects people who “hate him” to come. .
Vít Rakušan – No more political tactics. • Twitter @Vit_Rakusan
