Tomio Okamura is without a doubt the environmental guru of Czech politics, although he might not like to hear it. He founded the Society for Sustainable Development of his income, whether it was called Úsvit or SPD. But the crown machine got stuck and dear Tomio is now struggling to find a way out. We all have to bear the consequences to our displeasure.
Okamur’s latest escapade with giant billboards in Prague’s Wenceslas Square, which he disguised as a technique for filming a clip, is just a representative example of the practices that an irritated party engages in under the stress of declining preferences and election results. Representative because it is not at all about the ridiculous twenty thousand that the SPD paid for the takeover so that it could provoke right in the center of the metropolis.
We should not let our research calmness be broken even by the media attention that was offered and deservedly used. “Tomia Okamura’s way of running the campaign is not only racist, but also fraudulent,” Prague councilor Jiří Pospíšil is quoted as saying by the media. He explains that when billboard companies refused to display Okamura’s advertisement with the motif of a bloodied, dark-skinned man, for which several criminal complaints had already been filed, he decided to deceive the public and Prague. He lied not only to the unions of the municipality, but also to the entire public and Prague, claims Pospíšil.
Not that he wasn’t right. It’s just that it’s roughly at the level of a message like: “The wipers are wiping.” “But you don’t have to report it to us, we see it!” We can, of course, start dealing with the crime surrounding that famous seizure, wait three months, what will the authorities do, write something here and there update and all the while giving Okamura what he craves: attention.
It is very similar to the criminal charges filed because of racist and racism-inciting posters. And here we are already heading closer to the essence of Okamur’s immorality. The idea of Okamura being investigated, charged and dragged through the courts for one of the sections of the group of crimes against freedom and human dignity will please not one progressive heart, but also especially Okamura and his marketing department. We could examine ourselves in this way until the next parliamentary elections, for which a prudent populist would probably be happy to pay.
To be clear, I am not saying that verbal crimes or their visual counterparts should not be prosecuted. The authorities have an obligation to act ex officio, let them judge for themselves whether to initiate prosecution, they have enough sense and eyes too. Just so that in our indignation, however justified, we don’t file piles of criminal reports, write piles of articles, and then wonder.
The overpressure on the populist part of the spectrum is already such that the local established parties and their obscure imitators will be racing to get their voter herds in shape no later than a year from now, when the really thick and thin will go. There are not many places and it is up to us not to give an undeserved advantage to one actor vying for political survival. Every mention of Okamur is just another mention, when in the role of a victim of censorship – yes, this is how it will be presented and celebrated in the relevant circles – it will be him, and not Rajchl, Zítko, Peterková and others.
We have two options. We can focus on important things or feed the hydra of cliques and negative emotions. In the second case, the winner is known in advance. It is still true that it is best to deal with the politicians who chose provocation as an election program in the elections. Which is exactly what Okamura fears the most. Let’s leave him at that.
