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Professor Jiří Pehe, New York University in Prague: Is our current crisis caused by habits from
Austria-Hungary?

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Postscript from April 2022:  The Putin war against Ukraine has changed the political situation in
Central Europe substantially. The Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán has refused to support Ukraine while
the Czechs, the Poles and the Slovaks have sent many weapons and military infrastructure to
Zelensky. It means that the Visegrad Group of the CE countries has more or less disintegrated since
the Putin invasion on 24th February 2022: The Putin invasion has concentrated the minds of many
right wingers throughout Europe: While, in the past, populist and extreme right wing views were
extremely popular with many European politicians. the Russian invasion of Ukrajine has functioned
as a red line for many right wingers. Murdering civilians, women and children is basically too much
for many politicians.  Hence the disintegration of the Visegrad Group.


September 2023:

However, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Czech right-of-centre government of Petr Fiala,
about which everyone hoped that it would return the Czech Republic to the West (and he has
supported Ukraine, that is true) has proven to be rather uncommunicative and incompetent on the
home political scene, not really dealing with the impoverishment of about 30 per cent of the
population, thus encouraging, indirectly, the populist and authoritarian opposition in the Czech
Republic. The return of the  pro-Russian oligarch Babiš to rule the country cannot be excluded now.
Poland and Hungary are continuing on their authoritarian path, Hungary is pro-Russian and Slovakia
is wavering in its support for Ukraine.



 The political attitudes of the so call "Visegrad group" of the Central European countries (Poland,
Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic) are not particularly constructive. The EU is threatening to stop
its subsidies to Poland and Hungary for destabilising the rule of law, Czech PM Babiš is being
investigated by the EU for a conflict of interest. Around 1900, Central Europe was a source of
highly stimulating ideas, culturally as well as politically. This was due to the mixing of
cultures. Then, however, Austria-Hungary was dismembered. This was a serious problem for Central
Europe. It was occupied by the German Nazis, then by Soviet communists. Central Europe is a
geopolitically weak place. The CE countries can defend themselves  against the great powers of
Germany and Russia only if they cooperate, but they are unable to do this. The Central European
countries have adopted authoritarianism, red tape, weakness of politicians and the politicians'
disinterest in the individual citizens from Austria-Hungary. In this Britské listy Interview, Jan
Čulík talks about these themes with Professor Jiří Pehe, Czech political scientists and the
Director of the Prague branch of New York University. The interview was broadcast by the Czech
cable TV station Regionalnitelevize.cz from 20th January 2020.


Click on Professor Jiří Pehe, New York University in Prague: Is our current crisis caused by habits
from Austria-Hungary? to open the resource.


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