To be fair: We won't see a showdown between Petr Pavel and Miloš Zeman. However, this joke doesn't diminish the strength of Czech gerontocracy
No one in their right mind can take Zeman's dream of returning to the presidential office seriously. It was obviously one of many more or less embarrassing attempts at humor that accompanied both his long political career and the entire interview with the former president, which was published in the party press of the ANO movement. However, gerontocracy is thriving in Czechia regardless of the intensity of Miloš Zeman's political engagement.
"You know, it tempts me. That in the corner of my soul I keep thinking about it. But because every person has their alter ego, my alter ego tells my ego: Miloš, you are 82 years old and you shouldn't be the Czech Biden," answered Miloš Zeman in an interview for MF Dnes to Petr Kolář in response to a sycophantic question, which is a typical "journalistic" product of one of the leading figures of the party press of the ANO movement, into which the once most significant Czech daily has transformed.
Political parties need their media platforms that will help them present their vision of the world. Today, it's primarily about social networks, originally "social media", but good old newspapers are also useful. Especially when it comes to a party focused on older citizens, colloquially: pensioners.
Petr Pavel at celebrations vs. Miloš Zeman sleeping in Lány
Every second pensioner voted for the ANO movement. It would be strange if it were a party of thirty-year-olds, God forbid even younger people. The party chairman has also been a pensioner for many years, and so he presents himself at election meetings as well.
Prague has now also enjoyed its gerontocratic period. Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS) celebrated his 82nd birthday, but another one won't await him, as he will no longer run for the leading representative of the capital city. Zeman's statement can also be perceived in this context.
The entire interview criticizes current President Petr Pavel, as if Zeman wanted to oppose him. For example, he mocked him that since he attends some "celebrations", the role of president is not as demanding for him as it was for his predecessor. Miloš Zeman, after all, worked so intensively in the name of the republic that he didn't leave Lány, with the exception of visits to the Central Military Hospital.
Even the parliamentary election results didn't pull him out of his lethargy, and given his provocative statements that regardless of the election result he would appoint Andrej Babiš as prime minister again, for some time no one knew what would happen. Miloš Zeman was glad he survived that period at all (as he admitted in an interview), as he was in the hospital at the time. To this day, no one knows why he was actually there, aside from the nonsensical information about a conditioning stay in the hospital from his entourage.
Miloš Zeman's candidacy for president was just a joke
The question was just a provocation, a provocative answer came from Zeman, yet it generated quite a response both in traditional media and on social media.
"His remark that he shouldn't become 'the Czech Biden' is typically Zeman-like. Self-irony, provocation, and at the same time a door left ajar. He's not saying he will run. But he's definitely not saying he won't. However, the truly interesting question isn't whether Miloš Zeman will be 83 years old at the time of the election. And not even whether he could defeat Petr Pavel. Much more serious is the question of why Czech politics keeps returning to the same names after so many years. Zeman. Babiš. Pavel. And now perhaps Zeman again. The claim that a 'revived Zeman' would defeat Petr Pavel is merely a hypothesis. There's a long time until the presidential elections, we don't know the candidates or the social and political situation in which they will take place,"
entrepreneur with the famous name Jiří Lobkowicz took the bait.
At the same time, however, it raises the burning question of why we don't hear the names of younger people with real political ambitions for the most important political positions? The president must be over 40 years old, but officially no one older or younger is preparing for the campaign, not even the current president.
For a moment, Czechia was slightly on its way to a fundamental step away from the rule of grey-haired men (there aren't many women among them either). After the COVID disaster orchestrated by current government leaders, the preferences of the coalition of then "young" politicians of the PirSTAN coalition soared high above 30%. We also know how they ended up.
Gerontocracy according to political science theories often arises from meritocracy, that is, from the rule of those who have personal abilities. Once someone has the ability to get to the helm, why wouldn't they be able to stay there, perhaps until death?
Sources: author's text, commentary, X, SeznamZprávy.cz, iDnes.cz
