Part II: Fascists, communists and ultra-conservatives against liberal democracy in the Czech Republic

The evaporated past

The meetings in Příčovy have been happening for several years now under the name of the “Patriotic Reunion”. People attend who were previously each other’s sworn enemies, but who now are drawn together by a common enemy: The advocates of liberal democracy (see Part I of this commentary).

One of the two Jewish people present at this year’s event, Benjamin Kuras, was apparently happy to be photographed with the neo-Nazi Vandas; Ivan Hoffman, who was a dissident during totalitarianism, had no problem being there with the Stalinist Skála; Skála himself had no problem being in the same room as the religious fanatic Semín; Charter 77 signatory Lenka Procházková appreciatively patted Gec, a fanatical follower of Putin, on the back; and nobody took issue with the presence of the dyed-in-the-wool primitive Vítězslav Jandák, who has joined and then left more political parties as a lifelong careerist than there are stars in the night sky over Příčovy. It is as if the world has turned inside out and the past has disappeared, evaporated – the Soviet gulags, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army and the subsequent “normalization” period…

These people have a much deeper repugnance for the current political order than they do for fascism, Nazism and communism. Some have even been outright communists or fascists for some time now.

Celebrities

These comradely conventions, starting in 2019, have been attended by intellectuals who are considered celebrities. You could spot two Charter 77 signatories at them, Jaroslav Bašta and the author Lenka Procházková; the British Jewish anti-Muslim activist and author Benjamin Kuras; the Jewish ultra-conservative intellectual Alexander Tomský; that eternal opportunist Petr Žantovský; the anti-Islam fanatics Hampl and Konvička; the religious fanatic Semín; the economist Švihlíková; former presidential candidate Franz; the former radio commentator, erstwhile songwriter and dissident during totalitarianism Ivan Hoffman; the economist Ševčík; the former informer to the communist Czechoslovak secret police Nohavica, who was awarded a medal by Putin; the singer Horký from the group Kamelot, etc.

Politicians also understandably attend this event to attract voters: The communist/Stalinist Skála; Vandas and his colleague from his party, Štěpánek, whose Workers’ Party was dissolved by the court for being a Nazi entity; Tomio Okamura; Foldyna, that grim follower of Putin; Czech MP Kobza and other offshoots of the fascist “Freedom and Direct Democracy” movement (SPD); Hájek and Jakl, stooges for former Czech President Klaus; Majerová of the Tricolor party; the Orbán-follower Rajchl; the anti-Havel Drulák; the actor and former Culture Minister Jandák, etc. The head of the National Militia (Národní domobrana), Marek Obrtel, could be seen there this year, or previously Ivo Gec, vice-chair of the Provincial Militia (Zemská domobrana), which is determined to “avert the war unleashed by NATO” alongside the Russian Army.

Gec told this gathering in 2019 that there actually exists the technology to control people’s minds from a distance, and the evidence for this is (loosely interpreted) the fact that heterosexual white men in the USA commit mass shootings. He informed the audience of the existence of “programs like MKULTRA, which absolutely reprogram a person – you can notice that the Prime Minister visited Langley [CIA headquarters] and came back a completely different person… We have chemtrails here, we have drugs… if medicines are being faked, the official ones, what do you think they are mixing into those drugs? Why are those naive optimists so naive? Well, it occurs to me that most have experience with drugs and they simply have pre-programmed, transformed personalities, exactly through these new technologies.”

Naturally, every year, those who make a living through the anti-democratic agenda attend this event, including the sad figure of former Police President Stanislav Novotný, who previously worked for a very long time in the Christian Academy with Tomáš Halík.

Media support

These events are being covered by “alternative media” – Svobodné rádio, Sputnik, Raptor TV, Šifra and others. With those outlets, the reporting situation is identical to Trump’s famous “alternative facts”.

These outlets lie and lie, regularly supplying their audiences with disinformation and half-truths, and they spew both brand-new and older conspiracy theories. They want to achieve a state of affairs in which nobody will know what is true anymore or not, a state where they can present their disinformation and lies as the truth and advocate for their world view and their favorite authoritative regime, naturally at the expense of liberal democracy.

Raptor TV is controlled by Žarko Raptor Jovanovič, a pro-Russian journalist with close ties to the Citizens’ Rights Party – Followers of Zeman (Strana práv občanů Zemanovci) and Okamura’s SPD. The partners of Svobodné rádio (Free Radio) are, in addition to the SPD, other racist, xenophobic initiatives, media and parties such as the neo-Nazi Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS), the online servers Nová buržoazie (New Bourgeoisie), New World Order Oppozition and Nová republika (New Republic) – all of which purvey conspiracy theories and hate.

Šifra (Cipher), controlled by Milan Vidlák, is intended for those “who read between the lines”. What these media outlets have in common is a bottomless love for Putin and the unwavering conviction that the Russian leader always tells everybody the holy truth about everything.

Demagogy and nonsense

Allegedly the film director Jiří Strach was also meant to attend Příčovy this year. “Jirka apologized to me, saying that now that he’s 50 or so he still has some work ahead of him and he would prefer to completely leave any circle that has any more work in store for him. That’s how far gone we are. It’s like it’s the 1950s again…,” commented Petr Žantovský, who as a journalist willingly served the communist normalization regime.

This gifted demagogue compared the director’s fears to the 1950s, when the Bolsheviks murdered or imprisoned their political opponents, or peasants who did not want to join collectivized agriculture, or church representatives, or their Jewish colleagues in their own party, or anybody who wanted to leave the prison, encircled with barbed wire, that used to be called Czechoslovakia. This year Ivan Hoffman, who was a dissident against that regime, angrily said the following during this gathering: “I believe that we’re already living in totalitarianism, it can be recognized through the fact that plurality has been lost, that the competition is essentially over… Those who won have all the power [in the media]. As far as politics goes, the process is similar, we have one-party rule all over again, even though they pretend to be a coalition of five different parties. It’s one party that has taken up all the room and discussion has disappeared…”.

Naturally this is nonsense, Hoffman himself was commenting on current events just a couple of weeks ago on public broadcaster Czech Radio and many people disagreed with him – he probably couldn’t take it, psychologically, and has become embittered. He also reiterated, in so many words, the tried-and-true lie of the fascists, ultra-conservatives, losers and those who want “peace” between Russia and Ukraine, namely, that democratic institutions here, starting with the government, are pushing “a single correct opinion” and that other opinions allegedly cannot be expressed.

Of course, the truth is that never before in history have people of various opinions ever had so much room to express themselves as they do today, thanks to liberal democracy in particular, and naturally thanks to the Internet as well.

A free totalitarianism?

Books were being sold at Příčovy, the contents of which were close to the opinions of those attending, which means that books are freely published here that meet their tastes, and they freely spoke there (and not just there) about the “current totalitarianism”, etc., and nobody arrested them for it, and the so-called “free media” (which are actually the disinformation media) are in operation, where their staffs and their guests share their opinions and where even Hoffman has enough room to speak. A political opposition does exist in Parliament, the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) and the SPD, as well as those not seated in Parliament, such as the Greens, the Communists, the Social Democrats, Motorists Unite and the Oath (Přísaha) party.

Thanks to that opposition there are lively discussions both on the floor of Parliament and in the media. Even the mainstream media, however stupidly or unprofessionally produced it may be, reports about the various opinions and keeps the discussion going.

Public broadcasters Czech Radio and Czech Television invite representatives of various ideologies and opinions to discuss them, they invite experts and politicians, and most of the other radio and television stations do so as well, as do the Internet programs produced by experienced journalists. The discussions among us ordinary people predominantly take place online and anybody can participate as long as he or she does not express opinions in an unlawful, violent, hateful or insulting way.

That is as it should be, because abusing other people is not a discussion, but the discouragement of discussion. Next, in Part III of this series, I will analyze the demagoguery of some attending the Příčovy Reunion, comparing it to their previous positions and remarks.

I will also answer the question: Are these people really patriots?