Prague - The Green Party, former junior party of the ruling coalition that was replaced by an interim party on May 8, has kicked off a campaign for the June European Parliament election on Tuesday.
The Greens, enjoying the support of former president Václav Havel since yesterday, are set to stage a series of public rallies nationwide in the upcoming days.
They have also presented an election spot that will be screened on Czech public service TV.
Czech politics as an animal farm
The spot takes place in a farm and features a cow and a goat engaged in a conversation about the European Union's politics, while the Greens' leader Martin Bursík and some of the EP election candidtates are loading hay on a tractor.
Both animals refer to the Czech politics as the "Czech yard", indicating the "smallness" of the political arena.
"Do you want Europe to cultivate the Czech yard? Vote for the Greens," says the party's election slogan.
In the spot president Václav Klaus is portrayed as a cock attached to a paper imitation of the Prague Castle.
"In Europe we will be part of the big cultivated herd and that cock of ours will not be heard that much anymore," says the cow to the goat, referring to Václav Klaus speaking up against the European Union without consulting the government.
It is not only president Klaus the Greens are making fun of. The clip is also poking Kateřina Jacques who stars in the second version of the spot, in which she rides a tractor loaded with hay. It is a direct reference to her failure to answer a question "What is biomass?" posed in a private TV show.
"How does she want to lead the masses when she has no idea what the biomass is?!" the cow asks jokingly.
The Communist party members are featured as red turkeys with a hammer and sickle in the background, while the Christian Democrats are represented by sheep gathered in a yard with a cross. The Social Democrats are goose in an orange yard and the Civic Democrats are pigeons in a blue loft.
Havel appreciated the Greens' original approach to the election campaign, stating that the big parties (Civic Democrats and Social Democrats) focus too much on the economic growth rather than on the nature.
Respected sociologist Jiřina Šiklová told journalists Tuesday that the Greens do not want to lure voters by giving them free beer at election rallies.
Jacques is adamant most of the Czech voters are tired of billboards. In general, Czech parties have gone online, using community server facebook and youtube.
