Looking at the election manifestos from broader perspective, one can define two basic cleavages in national identity related issues – the EU, and the perception of populism. However, the election campaign discourse was shaped by different issues that are not reflected in the manifestos. In order to analyse this process properly, Czech national issues must also be analysed. Although the EU was discussed as an issue that divides the parties a lot, none of the mainstream parties (except Hnutí úsvit) strictly oppose the integration process. On the other side, there is evidence of the lack of a clear consensus on European integration. Unfortunately, both new movements did not elaborate their EU policy in details. Especially in the case of the Usvit movement, populism is evident. In a similar way, the European policy of KSCM is still more cloud than clear sky. Nonetheless, the EU policy is not the main relevant issue of Czech politics and the election campaign confirmed this fact.
If one considers the anti-Roma riots that took place in summer, the parties failed to respond to this issue completely. Only the Greens reflected this event both in their election manifesto and in official party channels. TOP 09, the Greens, ANO were the only parties that mentioned the social inclusion explicitly. This is interesting with regard to the left parties, who with the exception of the Greens, probably decided not to “speak with the voice of the excluded” for tactical reasons.
Although two new political movements passed 5 % threshold, the political discourse did not change a lot in the direction of populism. However, neither movement (ANO and Úsvit) shows a clear ideological profile. The mainstream parties’ election manifestos remained in the same categories as the 2010 manifestos. Only the Social Democrats omitted any mention of preferred immigration region. Very unclear is the role of the Usvit movement in the case of the riots. With hindsight, their leader was the only mainstream political figure who actively stressed the Roma issue. As he has showed in the TV debate, he will possibly politicize the immigrant issue. Although this issue in not currently as relevant as it is in Western Europe, the Czech political discourse will be faced with slow rise of national populism soon. Okamura’s tactic is not to speak about the immigrants or Roma issues directly, but, as for instance Geert Wilders does, to use issues like corruption, freedom of speech etc. instead.
Generally, most of parties failed in defining of societal context for their election manifestos.
