PRAGUE - A 75-year-old prince
with a centuries-old lineage and a taste the unconventional has won a
surprise following in his bid for the Czech presidency with a "punk
rock" campaign that has energised Czechs weary of the current political
class.
Karel Schwarzenberg has struck a chord among young
voters by mixing old world charm with posters showing him with a purple
mohawk over the slogan "Karel for PreSident", a reference to bassist Sid
Vicious of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.
In real life, Schwarzenberg wears a three-piece suit
and bow tie and smokes a pipe, but his supporters appreciate that he can
poke fun at himself.
He is running neck-and-neck with leftist Milos Zeman
ahead of a runoff vote in the country's first presidential election this
weekend. Previous presidents were selected by parliament in back-room
deals which led to public demands for a direct vote.
"He can bring something that is missing in this country, some class and morality," said student Kamil Valsik, 25.
"There is a lot of theft going on. He will not steal,
he is 'old money'. That's why I want him," he said, reflecting many
Czechs' frustration with widespread corruption.
Currently the foreign minister, Schwarzenberg worked as
chancellor to the first post-communist President Vaclav Havel in the
early 1990s. Supporters see him as heir to the dissident writer and
human rights activist who united the nation in the peaceful 1989 "Velvet
Revolution".
His campaign is run by friends from his favourite
Prague hangout Mlejn (The Mill), a smoky cafe where students mix with
artists and can chat with Schwarzenberg, who can often goes there for a
nightcap.
He once brought a somewhat puzzled Condoleezza Rice there when she visited Prague as U.S. Secretary of State.
The punk-rock motif is the work of long-time friend
sculptor David Cerny. Cerny's "Entropa", a satirical sculpture poking
harsh fun at European nations through stereotypes, shocked Europe when
it was unveiled in 2009 at the building in Brussels where EU summits are
held.
"The chances looked so slim that I thought we had to go
on the edge," Cerny told Reuters. "Punk is image ... the point is that I
still see Karel as non-conformist, someone different than the rest of
the bunch in politics."
Dozens of rock bands have played free shows for "Karel"
and people wear pins with his punk image, an unusual sight in the Czech
Republic, where the public is rarely active in campaigns.
Czech presidents do not wield much day-to-day power,
but the post has great symbolic value. Presidents represent Czechs
abroad and pick central bankers, prime ministers and judges.
Even if he ends up losing, the outpouring of support
for Schwarzenberg shows that many Czechs are unhappy with the political
establishment.
EXILED UNDER COMMUNISM
Schwarzenberg was born into a family that owned big
tracts of Czech and Austrian land for centuries but were forced to flee
when the Communists took over in 1948. Schwarzenberg lived in Austria
until 1989.
In exile, he supported the Czech anti-communist human
rights movement and sponsored a library of banned Czech literature while
taking care of the family estates. Without fanfare, he has also been
financially supporting artists in need.
Critics say it is impossible to separate Schwarzenberg
from the rest of the political class, given he became a senator in 2004
and minister in 2007, and has powerful business friends.
But for many voters, the main thing going for
Schwarzenberg is that he is not his rival Zeman, who as prime minister
in 1998-2002 ruled under a power-sharing deal with current President
Vaclav Klaus.
Opponents see that period as one of the darkest in the
modern republic, when corruption flourished and police and the justice
system failed to crack down on widespread graft. Klaus is now backing
Zeman.
"I want to change politics a little bit," Schwarzenberg
said in a recent radio interview. "We have to realise our
responsibility for the country and the nation, we have to realise that
unhinged corruption is not the way to go."
EUROPEAN BACKER
Schwarzenberg is a strong backer of European
integration and fan of eventual adoption of the euro, in contrast to the
anti-EU Klaus.
"In a globalised world where our economy is
interconnected with the whole of Europe ... talking about solely
national sovereignty is an illusion," he said. "That time has passed."
Schwarzenberg also backed a 2007 plan, later shelved, to build a U.S. missile defence radar in the Czech Republic.
Schwarzenberg calls himself a conservative, but his
voters include those in urban liberal circles and young people.
His appeal wanes in the countryside and among poorer
Czechs, for whom he represents a centre-right government that has cut
social support and suffered several graft scandals. He also formed a
political party with unpopular Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek, seen
as connected to business interests.
Some say Schwarzenberg is too old and point to his tendency to fall sleep in meetings and slur his speech.
Klaus attacked Schwarzenberg last week for not being Czech enough because he lived in exile so many years.
Zeman accused him of supporting the cause of 3 million
ethnic Germans expelled from the country after World War Two after he
said in a television debate last week that the expulsion, in today's
world, could be seen as a war crime.
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