Prague, Sept 17 (CTK) – The migration threat was expected to play a key role in the campaign ahead of the regional elections, but most parties avoid such rhetoric and even the anti-Islam groupings start admitting that the issue is not attractive for Czech voters, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes on Saturday.
The regional and Senate elections are due in three weeks, on October 7-8.
The far-right Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS) keeps claiming that migrants are terrorists, but it also sticks to its traditional topic, or the criticism of unadaptable citizens. The DSSS election slogan is NO to migrants, AGAINST unadaptable, YES to order, MfD writes.
The term “unadaptable” is used for citizens who keep violating the rules, but extremists apply it to the Romany minority.
On Wednesday, only several people attended the election meeting of DSSS leader Tomas Vandas in the square in Roudnice nad Labem, central Bohemia, and it turned out that even these people were members of Vandas’s team. A few hours afterwards in the nearby Libochovice, the situation was similar.
Activist Martin Konvicka organised meetings all over the country when he was leader of the Bloc against Islam movement last year, but he does not attract hundreds of people anymore and the Bloc disintegrated. Konvicka recently tried to shock with his street performances mocking Islam, but he did not win much support, the paper writes.
The small opposition Dawn-National Coalition now criticises its former ally Konvicka.
“The performances of Martin Konvicka ridicules something that is a serious problem in other countries. It seems to be that his aim may be to harm all other groupings that try to prevent the Islamisation of the Czech Republic,” Dawn leader Miroslav Lidinsky said.
Though many Czechs feel afraid of Islam and a possible Islamisation of Europe, they do not support any-Islam groupings, MfD says.
“Regional elections should be dominated by regional affairs. The disintegration of the anti-Islam scene will mean that none of the anti-Islamists will be elected to be regional authorities and later on in the parliament,” activist and former Czech Muslim, Lukas Lhotan, said.
Political analysts have been saying for months that the refugee issue alone will not be enough for parties to succeed in the autumn elections.
“Parties that have a single issue mostly do not survive more than one election period. People who cast their votes because they are angry cannot concentrate for a long time and one issue is not enough for them,” analyst Jan Charvat told the paper.
The mainstream parties deal with migration in their election programmes only very carefully. The Social Democrats (CSSD) use general formulations and do not present any concrete plans.
