LN: Czechs are nostalgic for Communist era

Prague, Feb 4 (CTK) - The difficult economic situation is cited in first place when explaining why some 32 percent of Czechs believe that the Communist regime was better than the current one, Jan Drazan writes in Lidove noviny (LN) Monday, analysing why many Czechs are nostalgic for the former.

The rising prices and reforms tightening the belts will always prevail over moral values in the assessment of the situation, Drazan writes.

This is doubly true if someone only earns a few thousand crowns a month or has no job at all, he adds.

Besides, there is a general disappointment at the politics to which Prime Minister Petr Necas's government has considerably contributed, Drazan writes.

Government coalition squabbles occurring virtually every two weeks have been the general sign of the past two years and a half, he adds.

Besides, there is a major role played by one irrational aspect, nostalgia, Drazan writes.

Nostalgia is mostly desire for one's youth, the lost time, he adds.

However, there is the warning tendency that people with higher education, well-off and even centrist and rightist voters have started to assume a negative attitude to the current state of affairs, Drazan writes.

It is a well-known fact that at least since last autumn, society has not had a clearly negative attitude to the totalitarian past and the major dividing line is no longer defined by the simplified opposition of the young and the old.

In fact, the results of the autumn regional elections sent a clearer message than any opinion polls as they saw the Communists' comeback to regional assemblies, Drazan writes.

The Communist success was not resented by 56 percent of those polled in general, including 54 percent of those under 30 where the nostalgia can hardly be the main factor, he adds.

Besides, there is still the magic figure of about 55 percent. Is it by chance that leftist candidate Milos Zeman received 54.8 percent of votes in the presidential runoff? Drazan asks.

Perhaps there is the comfort that Czechs are not alone with their nostalgia for the past. Being dissatisfied with everything is no Czech national peculiarity, Drazan writes.

When it comes to the attitude to the past, Czechs are not exceptional. The favourable judgement of the previous regimes and nostalgia for the Communist era basically cuts across all the area of the former Soviet bloc, he adds.

The East German Ostalgie and the Balkan Yugonostalgia are well-known phenomena, Drazan writes.

If Nicolae Ceausescu were running for the post of Romanian president now, he would be elected by 41 percent, a poll in Romania has revealed.

We can believe that Communist presidents Klement Gottwald (1948-1953) and Gustav Husak (1975-1989) would not receive so many votes. "Or are we naively wrong?" Drazan asks in conclusion.

Some 46 percent of Czechs, down from 53 percent a year ago, are of the view that the current regime is better than the Communist, ruling before 1989, according to a poll released last week.

One-third of Czechs believe that the current regime is worse than the previous one. The figure rose from 27 to 32 percent.

The remaining 22 percent consider both regimes roughly the same.