Emily Morrissey:

Recent Czech elections hope to remove corrupt individuals from government

This past week the Czech Republic underwent legislative elections. The previously elected parliament was intended to serve an additional seven months in office, however, due to corruption and bribery they were forced to resign earlier this year. The previous government was led by prime minister Petr Necas. In the elections the two parties receiving the most votes were the Czech Social Democratic Party and Action of Dissatisfied Citizens. As an American citizen living in Prague temporarily the election results do not have a significant effect on my experience here. However, growing up in the United States taught me to always root for a fair and democratic government. I am glad to see that the Czech Republic took the initiative address the corruption and remove those members from office. I understand the Czech Republic has a very different history than the United States and they are only just developing a system of democracy. From my experience I have found that there is large generational gap between what type of government Czech citizens desire. This is likely due to the older generations having lived through a communist regime. Numerous Czechs have expressed to me that younger generations are upset with the current president. 

In the midst of the election a popular Czech artist, David Cerny, expressed his views of the current political situation in the Czech Republic in a very public format. He constructed a large purple hand pointing it’s middle finger at Prague Castle where the president resides. I commend Cerny’s courage to speak out against a government he believes isn’t best serving the people. Cerny stated that statute was directed at the nations Communist party as well. In the United States we are taught early on that communism is a corrupt form of government and I would agree that democratic governments are better suited to serve the people. I do find, however, that there are many issues in the United States government as well and in my opinion not enough is being done to change the situation.