Photos of Prime Minister Petr Fiala surrounded by demonstrators with dissenting banners flew round social media. Petr Fiala – Prime Minister and Professor – came to “his” Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno to discuss with students, but encountered resistance from some of them. Besides supporting the genocide of Palestinians, students reproached him on banners for misusing the faculty grounds for campaigning and creating the impression that the entire FSS stands behind him.

“Half a year before elections, this event cannot help but be perceived as part of the pre-election campaign. We consider it completely unacceptable for an academic institution to be misused for political propaganda. The Faculty of Social Studies once invoked the political neutrality of the institution when it refused a lecture by former President Miloš Zeman. Today it seems as though a double standard is being applied,” the students argue.

“Petr Fiala is officially supposed to appear here as an expert on foreign policy. At the same time, however, he is the incumbent and again candidating Prime Minister, former rector of this university, and close friend of FSS Dean Stanislav Balík, who represents Fiala’s ODS in the Senate. It is unacceptable for university grounds to serve as a mouthpiece for any political party,” writes the student initiative in a press release.

Genocide, Climate and Anti-social Measures

Besides self-promotion on academic grounds, the protesters also reproach Fiala for supporting Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Fiala’s government thus takes the side of genocide. This stance not only damages the Czech Republic’s international reputation, but also shows that the government places geopolitical ties above any humanitarian principles and protection of human rights. We refuse to allow a person whose support kills to speak at our university.”

Further criticism focused on completely inadequate climate measures and the continuing import of Russian gas and oil. Moreover, they blame Fiala’s government for supporting American President Donald Trump. “Support for such a politician is incompatible with the humanistic and democratic values for whose protection Petr Fiala presents himself and under which our university also shelters,” writes the student body in the press release.

According to the initiative, Fiala remembered universities before the elections, but under his government universities as well as primary and secondary schools rather suffered, and teachers’ real wages also fell. “Schools lack money, the government overlooks the needs of teachers and students, and there is a complete absence of conceptual strategy for modernising teaching,” the protesters reproach the Prime Minister.

Denik Alarm

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