Jan Houška: Patriots or fascists? How extremists are influencing Czech politics and what history tells us about the dangers of populism
When it comes to Romani people living in the Czech Republic, we hear nothing but mystification and intentional half-truths from many politicians here. Their opinions are often armed with nothing but dangerous ignorance and a lack of interest. They do not want to actually solve problems or even to hold a dialogue with those who are involved with this issue, especially not with the Roma living in impoverished neighborhoods (which experts call "socially excluded localities") - and they wouldn't know how to solve the problems or hold a dialogue even if they wanted to. Paradoxically, the political parties which are campaigning with their strong slogans against "inadaptables" are just worsening these problems. The more they promise to act with a "firm hand", the more such localities have grown over the last decade, primarily in places where such politicians have been promising in their election campaigns to institute harsh measures once in power.
The aim of these parties, which frequently have fascist tendencies, is to persuade some in society that the only solution to these problems is a “firm hand”. However, people who live near socially excluded localities, or even in them, know the opposite is true. Those politicians have not made the slightest amount of progress with this problem.
Some of these politicians are even calling themselves “patriots”, which would be laughable if it weren’t also so tragic. In reality they are the exact opposite of patriots. A patriot is proud of his country and of the citizens who live in it. A patriot does not exclude his fellow citizens on the basis of the color of their skin, their social problems, or their sexual orientation. A patriot does not spread hate and lies about his fellow citizens, whether about the present or about historical events. A patriot understands that if a group in the population has a problem, that problem is also his – otherwise he’s not a patriot. You cannot claim to love trees while hating their roots.
Today, political parties are pretending to be patriots, but their “patriotism” is actually fascism. This is reminiscent of the year 1936 and the movement called Vlajka – Hnutí za nové Československo (The Flag – Movement for New Czechoslovakia), which defined itself as against Jews and promoted antisemitism. Their hate during the Second Czechoslovak Republic and the Nazi occupation resulted in their open collaboration with the Nazis. Similarly, today we have a fascist political party in the Czech Parliament, the “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD) movement, as well as others which would like to cut themselves pieces of the pie of money and power.
History teaches us that no party of this kind has ever profited its country – quite the opposite. Such people lose touch with reality and create their own version of it which they then do their best to force as many other people as possible to accept. Morality means nothing to them, they are willing to be inhumane toward their own citizens and to lie to them when the occasion arises. They have totalitarian tendencies and need to find scapegoats to expel or punish. Their aim is to find a simple way to power, and their campaigns consist of sparking fear, hate and lies. They divide people without ever bringing them together or building anything.
It’s important to know that the main interest of such politicians is just to benefit themselves. Hiding behind the mask of “patriotism”, they teach others to hate. Sparking fear and hatred aids them with taking political office. The less moral they are, the simpler their slogans, the better. They are waging a war irrespective of its impact on the lives of ordinary people or on society itself.
If we’re not careful, these politicians will teach us to hate the oppressed and love those who oppress them. What makes people bad or good is not the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, or their social status – people are either bad or good irrespective of what they look like. Czech society has listened to these wannabe politicians long enough, whether at the local level, the regional level, or in Parliament. We should finally ask ourselves the question: Whom do these politicians benefit besides themselves?
It’s necessary to pragmatically reflect on whether the people who bet on fear and hatred here are actually the ones who should occupy political positions.
