Political right-wing in the Czech Republic is shattered. Numbers of former governing Civic Democratic Party voters have decreased significantly due to the recent scandal, TOP 09 still bears stigma of social engineering ideas behing its liberal face and that's pretty much it. But still, there is one small party that aims to become strong political force. Despite being founded in 2009, The Free Citizens Party hasn't crossed quorum needed for assigning governing positions in any of the imporant polls. The hope for recovery still remains - in this article I'll try to adress important issues with the party's policy which drag its preferences down.
1 - People
Alpha and Omega of every major political party is a strong set of personalities. Leaders. People who inspire, who attract attention. Civic Democratic Party had Mr. Klaus, Karel Schwarzenberg (with Mr. Kalousek peeking from behind) shined for TOP 09 and The Free Citizens Party has... some Petr Mach. Pretty good speaker, but, to be honest, no leader. His boyish look combined with cute sweaters won't win a parliament seat for The Free. But judging from the conversations I had with members, this problem is recognized and, hopefully, will be taken care of.
2 - Bloated vision
Immediately leave the European Union! Remove the labour code! Privatize health insurance! Sure, these ideas may (just may) seem appealing when discussed in a think-thank like environment, but building them into political party program's pillars is just not smart. People get scared by huge words and huge steps. And this problem gets more significant when all those things can be realized only when The Free are occupying more than 50% in both parliament chambers. Why not focus on smaller themes?
3 - Dogmatism
Don't even think about breaking into an argument with any of party's bloggers. Don't try to doubt the almighty power of free market or (even!) ideas of Hayek, Rand or Rothbard. What they have written is pure gold and as that it is officialy presented. The Free Citizens Party is (as viewed by an ordinary Twitter folk) a band of die-hard libertarians, pure anarchocapitalists and a few classical liberals. But what's the worst - the tendency to make even a small compromise is reaching the lower limit. People are all rational and total liberalisation will solve everything. Well, that's what they (mostly) say.
4 - Agressive rhetoric
People are tired of hearing "that is so socialist!" all the time. Calling opponents names, using swear words in discussions to attack not so eager free market enthusiasts by party members and hosting hateful happenings (just remember the one against raising EU flag on Prague's Castle) isn't going to win any political points. Try to be positive. Try to show people what will untightening the regulatory ropes do for their ordinary lives. Forget theory, forget Human Action and speak to an ordinary worker, to a small bussiness owner. Yet, to be honest, people who do this do exist within the party. Their voice is, sadly, not so strongly heard.
Those were four anchors dragging The Free's boat towards the bottom. Surely we can find more of them (or try to nitpick within those four), but that's just not necessary. Someone inside the republic council (party's main organ) should think those issues throughouly, because it seems that the line "this election will be the last chance for them to become more than a humble think thank" is more true that many of them may think.
