Czech Elections Opinion Story

     Earlier this week, Czech citizens headed to the polls to choose their newest government leaders. As an American, this is one of our most celebrated processes and it was interesting to view some of the differences as an outsider. One of the biggest differences that I noted between American politics and Czech politics is prior to the election there seemed to less campaigning going on in Prague. You would think that the largest city in the Czech Republic would be the center of campaigning and events. The only campaigning that I saw done around the city were posters of individuals running for office. In America, yard signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts are frequent campaign tools used to gather attention for a candidate. I was surprised to see the lack of participation and excitement over new elections, especially in such a large city.

     One individual that did make his opinion known was David Cerny, Prague's infamous artist known for making heads turn with his art work. Cerny sculpted a 10 meter high middle finger, aimed at Prague Castle where the seat of president Milos Zeman resides. When I first heard about this artwork I was shocked but also intrigued by Cerny's opinion. I found myself wondering what would happen if an artist in the United States had created something like that and pointed it to the White House. Although we have freedom of speech in America and it is one of our most important values,  I found it hard to imagine such a bold statement being said against our government. It would be interesting to see how the people of America would have reacted if this kind of event had happened in our country. Being here during elections was an experience as an American. While most people just continued there lives like nothing was going on, others went out of their way to make their opinion known.