The campaigns of both candidates (Miloš Zeman and Jiří Drahoš) ran on the following four issues: 1) Immigration, 2) Finances, 3) Health, 4) Foreign policy. A quick reality check reveals that all of those have bugger all to do with actual political conditions in the country. The health of the candidates was obvious ground for confrontation, but it is not like the fact Zeman is a shambling zombie pushed around the place by bodyguards, or that Drahoš wears non-dioptric glasses now because he is used to wearing them, is likely to affect the political discourse in the country in any way (apart from the possibility of judicious application of embalming fluid increasing the TV appeal of even more political have-beens). [...]
What Zeman’s so-called trade missions have brought is an increased interest in our country from Russia and China. This was manifest in a variety of entertaining ways, ranging from the Chinese offer to connect the country to the Black Sea by means of a river channel, laughed at by economists and ecologists alike, to suggestions of Russians expanding Czech nuclear power plants (screw the government’s plans for a project competition), to Very Important Investors touring local factories in order to make a valiant effort at smuggling samples out of the building in their expensive suit pockets. Oops. Whether the point of a President’s official visits to other countries is to facilitate deals for his shady buddies is a question everyone has to provide their own answer to – sadly, we already know Zeman’s.
And then there is the biggest non-issue of all: illegal immigration. The Czech Republic is extremely Islamophobic while having roughly 0.2% Muslims among its populace. Even the logical jump from immigration to Islam is fallacious since these are quite different topics – but the Czech public discourse makes no difference between them: immigration means Islam means terrorism (means burqas means rape means eating babies). This discourse has long been hailed, preached and legitimized by politicians who just could not resist banking on the political capital offered by having a such a public enemy around. And Zeman utilized it to the max. Naturally the campaign would be about immigration – he has worked long and hard on breathing a semblance of life into this construct. And it repaid him in spades – so who cares if racism becomes commonplace and thousands of people will suffer because of bad PR? There’s votes in hate.
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