Brno, May 27 (CTK) – The Decent People movement, whose members disturbed a theatre performance in Brno on Saturday, can be labelled a radical rightist group, but it has no firmly anchored ideology for now, political scientist Miroslav Mares told CTK today.
He said he would not brand the movement extremist, which the Interior Ministry did in a report.
The Decent People is skilled in gaining publicity. It is trying to act resolutely, can table the agenda to discuss, has an influence in the virtual space, Mares said.
“This influence has not been confirmed by elections so far. Voters’ real support [for a movement] cannot be guessed based on [its position in] the virtual space only,” Mares said,
The Decent People, critical of the current coalition at the Brno City Hall, wants to run in the local elections in the city this autumn.
On Saturday evening, its activists attempted to thwart a controversial performance in the Husa na provazku theatre by storming the stage in reaction to a scene with naked actors, causing hour-long confusion before being escorted out by the police.
Mares said a part of the movement’s members are former football rowdies, while others are linked to boxing clubs. They adhere to ideas close to Czech nationalism and also speak about defending Christian traditions.
“I think they have no firmly anchored ideology for the time being,” Mares said.
Martin Glaser, head of the Brno National Theatre that organises a festival including the Saturday performance, said earlier today that the incident reminded him of scenes from films about the arrival of fascism.
Mares said he would not draw such a conclusion for now. He mentioned various types of blockades the country saw of late and said he did not consider the Saturday event a symptom of broad changes in society.
“In addition, one must realise that the play is really controversial,” Mares said, referring to the Our Violence and Your Violence performance produced by Croat theatre director Oliver Frljic, which critically shows the West’s approach to the Middle East countries.
In Brno, the performance met with criticism beforehand mainly based on a photo from it in which Jesus rapes a Muslim woman.