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New Czech opposition movement: Society cannot be cut

22 October 2012
3 minute read

Yesterday the ProAlt Initiative for the Critique of Reforms and Support for Alternatives published its founding declaration, “Society cannot be cut”. Today the Czech Parliament will take a vote of confidence on the new government. More than 100 people signed the ProAlt declaration on its first day. Tomorrow, 10 August, ProAlt is planning a “happening” in front of the Czech Chamber of Deputies during which its members and promoters will distribute the text of the declaration to MPs as they arrive between 13:00 and 14:00.

ProAlt is bringing together citizens who fundamentally disagree with the steps that have been prepared by the government in the areas of education, environmental protections, health care, retirement and social policy. “Under the slogan of ‘fiscal responsibility’, the government is preparing to be environmentally and socially irresponsible. The initiative intends to offer principled alternatives to this government policy,” says movement initiator Jana Glivická. Signatories to the declaration include the philosophers Václav Bělohradský and Erazim Kohák, sociologist Jan Keller, political scientist Jaroslav Šabata, actress Táňa Fischerová, author Eva Kantůrková, fine artist Jiří David, ecologist Jan Beránek and religious scholar Ivan Štampach.

ProAlt will publish expert analyses and position papers for public discussion. It will also collaborate with initiatives abroad that share its point of view and follow similar aims. The initiative intends to bring citizens together across professional and social groups and inspire the general public to defend their own interests more thoroughly. It will also organize protests against the prepared reforms with the aim of preventing them from taking effect.

The initiative primarily criticizes the incoming government for putting social solidarity at risk and reducing the quality of life of a large part of the country for a long time to come through its planned privatization of land and public services. “The state wants to abandon responsibility for vital areas of public life, in particular education, health care and retirement insurance. We do not consider the privatization of public services and public space to be the solution – on the contrary, we consider privatization to be the source of most of our current environmental and socioeconomic problems,” says ProAlt spokesperson Tereza Stöckelová.

The overemphasis on economic growth and parameters creates the impression that other factors influencing quality of life are inconsequential. This leads to an under-appreciation of those areas of social life that are not easily quantifiable, such as culture, education and the environment. ProAlt considers evaluating any state purely through financial parameters to be unacceptable.

ProAlt stresses that the current position of the Czech Republic with respect to its deficit is one of the best in Europe, propagandistic slogans about the “Greek threat” notwithstanding. Today the percentage of the Czech budget allocated for social expenditure is below the EU average. ProAlt believes the desirable goal of a balanced state budget must be achieved through re-evaluating the tax system in favor of significantly progressive taxation, transparent public administration, and the total elimination of corruption. “The aim of the planned reforms is not to pay off the debt, but to shift it from the public budget to individual households. People will be forced to go into debt for health care and tuition. For many, debt will become a necessary part of paying for their basic needs,” the declaration reads.

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