It could be described as another electoral fiasco. Jiří Novotný, however, does not consider mere 10,000 votes his party Moravané (Moravians) received in the European Parliament elections a cause for pessimism. “The change will come and we will succeed,” he said. Novotný is a confident, lean and always smiling young man wearing a T-shirt with a symbol of Moravian land. His party has a single aim: self-governing Moravia, independent of the Czech Republic. In comparison to the beginning of the 1990s when Moravian parties with the same programme sat in the parliament and were supported by millions of people, it today seems like a somewhat vain attempt. Many young people in Moraiva, just like Novotný, have a different view. They believe their time will come.
People in Bohemia were reminded that the Moravian national movement still exists by funny cartoon election TV spots where characters dressed in traditional national costumes complained in an almost unintelligible Moravian dialect that the “Prague people” exploit their land. Media noticed the amateurish pictures as an interesting curiosity but it got the message across. People started talking about Moravané party again.
All this happened thanks to a generational exchange. The Moravian movement fell apart and almost perished after the initial success in the 1990s. Today it has been taken up by a generation of people in their thirties who choose to build on international cooperation with similarly emerging nations around Europe rather than on nationalist passions. They believe in deeper European integration and hope that despite the negligible public support Moravia will be independent. Within five years.
Light of Europe
It all began because of something else altogether. The then 20-year-old student Jiří Novotný felt strongly unhappy with the politics of his village Manerov. He particularly did not like that the then representatives refused his appeals to renew fading alleyways and grow grass on bare hills. “They understood the village as the space between the houses only,” Novotný remembers. “They were not interested to hear that the countryside around the village is also part of it.” He got to understand that unless he himself gets to sit in the village council he will not push his opinions through. He put a list of candidates together with bunch of friends and started looking for a party that would endorse them. Since all of them felt like Moravian patriots they decided to enter the then Moravská demokratická strana (Moravian democratic party), the members of which still remembered the fame of the Moravian movement of the early 1990s.
Leadership of the Moravská demokratická strana soon noticed the young man who spoke English and gave him a first commission: to negotiate the party’s entry into the European Free Alliance uniting regional parties attempting autonomy or fighting for minority rights across the continent. (European Parliament representatives of the Alliance managed to push through recognition of the Basque as an official European language.) It was an interesting challenge for Jiří and he brought his mission in Europe to a successful end. “My European experience reassured me that what we do makes sense. That we are not alone in it,” he said. Apart from that, he also brought positive way of thinking from Europe. He said the Moravian movement veterans often did nothing but recall the once great prospect of the movement and claim the present holds nothing. “That does not work, though. European negotiations taught me that there is no point in whining. You need to think forward,” Jiří said. That is why he prepared a successful merging of two independent Moravian parties, brought Moravané party online and finally became its chairman.
“Moravia has always had its special civilisation mission,” Jiří explained why besides politology studies and work on his ecological farm he also dedicates his time to Moravian politics. “It was the first Slavic state, Old Church Slavonic was the fourth recognised liturgical language, Komenský was born here and worked her, Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren was established here and is now spread across the world,” Jiří said. “At schools, of course, they still teach that it’s all part of the Czech culture but that is a lie,” he added.
Scots will bring the change
According to Jiří and his 350 party members and allegedly growing number of supporters, the aim is still the same. Moravia should have its own autonomous government just as it used to until 1948. Whether this will be achieved through creation of an independent state or through division into two federative countries is unimportant. “We do not strive for our own passports or money. That does not make any sense in Europe as it is now,” Jiří said. “We, as Moravians, only want to manage our own things.” Moravian nationalists (unlike the Czech ones) direct their hopes towards European Union. They hope that the emergence of a European super-state with common foreign and security policies would allow the individual regions a greater freedom in “managing their own things”.
So far, there haven’t been many signs of this in Europe but Jiří says that is soon to change. Next year’s Scottish referendum on independence from Great Britain is to be a decisive move. “We do not approve of violence as shown by the Basque separatists for example,” Jiří Novotný said. “We want to go the Scottish way,” he added. Not many people in Moravia share this view with him right now. Only 400,000 people claimed Moravian nationality in the last census (as opposed to more than 1 million in 1991) and Moravané party does not have a stronger political influence than a few municipal representatives. “That, however, will change within five years,” said Jiří. “Moravian identity is strong, no doubt. We only have to remind Moravians about it.”
