Mayor Novotný is circumventing the law with good intentions

Novotný cannot be denied his media skills. Exactly according to the handbook, he is able to attract great attention, then listen to his “haters” and admirers and create a story, or rather a semblance of a story, which will strengthen his media reach and gain him the much desired attention. It is as if what the authors of the excellent publication “On the Net” write about is natural for him. After all, Řeporyje’s entry into the great power conflict with the Russian Federation was a clear masterstroke from this point of view, and his own programme on Mall.tv certainly confirms his feeling of a job well done.

However, whether or not we are close to Pavel Novotny’s values and methods, we should ask ourselves. Is this what we want the politician of the future to look like? What do we actually expect from a representative of the people (or the people?)?

Pavel Novotný wrote on his Twitter account:

Tywe, what’s this again. Anyway, as I walked by, it unlocked itself, so I opened it, hopefully someone will start destroying it and maybe set it on fire, then I’ll clean it up like a mess. It’s gonna be wreck number 23.

and added

A local socially disadvantaged woman. Crashed, not properly insured, no papers, never gonna tow it, I know. We’re gonna install cameras, I don’t have much time, that’s why all this. Someone closed it, so I opened it again. I have to make a mess of it, it can’t just be a wreck

It is a continuation of his cleaning of the roads in Řepory. Indeed, some time ago we could find on his Facebook page:

On the night of Saturday, an unexplained series of paranormal phenomena occurred, during which four wrecks went on a pilgrimage through the air and clogged the roads so that only thanks to the efficiency of the Municipal Police and the Police of the Czech Republic did I have to resort to crisis management.

In Prague’s Řepory, they found a way to circumvent the law and deal with the obstructing cars. This is great at first sight. A wreck that is left on the street by an unscrupulous owner is practically legally unremovable. No one will miss it. But should the ends justify the means in public administration? In my opinion, no. On the contrary. A politician is supposed to initiate a change in a stupid rule, not associate with martians or ufons.

What if the next time the good intention is a different kind of cleansing. We won’t move cars at night, but maybe just set them on fire? Courts are slow, but judge lynch is as fast as a guillotine. I’m certainly not saying that entertainer Novotny will slip to something like this, but he is setting the trend. He’s not alone, of course. President Trump aside, British Prime Minister Johnson and many others are entertainers as well.

Perhaps the rise of Novotny’s style is inevitable, and in ten years’ time we will routinely see the naked buttocks of our top leaders trumped by ever greater extravagance in a desperate attempt to impress on the net, if only for a moment. But maybe we can do without that, and especially without blatantly breaking or bending the law. We must finally realise that politics is a profession. A worthy and responsible profession. It should be done by professionals and not by buffoons.