No escape from the October elections

In my new status as an almost fulltime pedestrian and part time public transport user it is clear that that the upcoming elections in Prague are unavoidable above or below ground.

I am not a big user of Prague’s public transport system these days after deciding to walk to and, less often, from work. As it was, I walked a fair bit of the way anyway since the nearest metro station from home is up a steep gradient from the Nusle valley and it doesn’t make that much difference to carry on once the climb is over.

I don’t regret the change, apart from the fact that I am confronted at every turn by posters ahead of the October’s communal and Senate elections. They are plastered on billboards, telephone boxes, bus and tram stops as well as the transport itself. There is even one massive one rising up from the distance at IP Pavlova metro station that seems positively Orwellian. In Prague, you cannot miss the fact that there are elections on the horizon and that this time it looks like a fight.

'Life for children, future for Prague'

I don’t so much mind the posters, although they have an astonishing sameness: middle aged men in suits showing shiny dentures. No, what bugs me are the slogans. Like the faces, they have a stunted sameness. Most of them run on the following lines: “More security, less dirt,” “More greenery, less concrete,” “More sugar, less milk.” Yes, I made the last one up.

There is another version line that starts with “We won’t tolerate” and then continues along the same lines “less security, more dirt,” “more congestion, less parking”etc, etc.

Below ground, in the metro, the situation is even worse with the toothy candidates smiling from posters in every carriage and no escape available. On one long trip across the city the same face beamed out in carriages as far as I could see like an exercise in perspective for a renaissance portrait painter.

There were only two pluses here, the slogans had some variations and they were sort of sabotaged by the juxtaposition of pirate unofficial ads that the transport authority in vain tries to combat. Thus two gunmen could be seen taking aim at the smiling candidate in an ad for paintball sessions at a former military installation near the centre of Prague.

In another, a salacious nurse seemingly offered the candidate liquid refreshment in its alcohol emergency delivery service ad.

Maybe closer to home were the transport authority’s own “Beware of pickpockets” message helpfully put in English and Czech near the poster or the fire service advice to have a bag readily packed in case of an emergency when the sirens sound.

I’m not sure whether I got the same train going back, but the same candidate’s face was there again. This time, sadly, without the unofficial ads.