What appears as a real threat to the Czech Republic’s place in Europe is the surge of SPD, the far-right anti-EU party led by Tomio Okamura. “SPD won a large share of its votes from former supporters of the Communist party, whose switching to Okamura’s positions is a protest for low wages, economic uncertainty and fear for globalization, particularly strong outside Prague” Dostál says.

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Eurosceptic narratives would not be so pervasive, were they confronted by alternative discourses. The problem is they aren’t. “The debate on the EU has been dominated for ten years by Václav Klaus (Czech Republic’s first prime minister and then President from 2003 to 2012), whose critical stance toward Czech membership had no real opponent” Dostál says.

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