Commanding.
In the media, the reader will encounter a wide range of opinions concerning the influence of the communists on contemporary politics, especially those of government and parliament. On the one hand, it is said that the Communists are actually members of the government, that the government is semi-colonial, and that Communist appointees are being installed in key positions in state or semi-state companies, which is a denial of the post-Soviet development. From the other side, there are reassuring voices downplaying the current strength and position of the communists. The arguments are based on the high average age of the membership base, the poor quality of the personnel base and the obviously outdated ideas that Marxist-Bolshevik parties commonly rely on. The authors of the commentaries are often former communists, sometimes people who have had surprising shifts of opinion, and journalists who simply have to publish something.
As long as the Communist-backed group governs, "there is no threat of a new February, which is being purposely scared away by the group's opponents and some overly skeptical political scientists. The threat to democracy is also ruled out. But beware - democracy is nothing but fair elections. These are also present in Venezuela, for example." The quote comes from an opinion column in MF Dnes, is dated June 1, 2006, and was written by Martin Komárek, who eleven years later is not defending his position in the national chairmanship of the movement at the fourth ANO congress. Komárek also warns in the article against the forced implementation of the communist programme. This, he says, will mean, first of all, higher taxation of all "those who have more than thirty thousand, bullying of the richer people, drastic restrictions on the freedom of the press, an increase in the power of the red unions, a sharp rise in the national debt, ...".
Martin Komárek, along with Martin Stropnicky, was the face that was to give the Yes movement a visually intellectual and artistic dimension in the campaign for the 2013 early elections to the House of Representatives. We all remember the billboards with white backgrounds and appropriately worried faces of the main protagonists, always combined with the optimistic smiling chairman and owner of the movement. The elections five years ago confirmed that the bet on two distinctive personalities paid off. But Komárek, before Stropnický, could not bear the frantic pace of the times and began to lose his gloss in defending the indefensible. Evidence for the disparate line of opinion can be seen in the quotes above. When I met Martin Komárek a few weeks ago in Malostranské náměstí at a demonstration against Babiš and his communist-backed government, it struck me as a tragicomic plot loop in a slightly overwrought Czech-style political thriller, expressing helplessness, confusion and, in fact, helplessness and despair.
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