Narrative Battles Over the Velvet Revolution Anniversary

The anniversary of the 1989 fall of communism has become the sliding battlefield of Czech political narratives.

17 November 2023

Albin Sybera

Foresight Editor

The Velvet Revolution has also become a battlefield of rivalling political narratives, with billionaire and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš setting the populist agenda.

A closer look into media coverage of the ten-year (1999) and the thirty-year (2019) 17 November anniversaries shows that, first and foremost, the Velvet Revolution has become the commemoration of the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia and, in a liberal democratic view of post-1989 developments, a breaking point from the country’s communist and undemocratic past.

It wields exceptional political and what French sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu referred to as “symbolic power” when discussing the influence of media content on politics and society. Moreover, the capture of the narrative surrounding the Velvet Revolution may prove useful for the unceasingly favoured populist forces attempting to return to power.

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Albin Sybera

Foresight Editor

Foresight Editor. Albin is a freelance journalist, consultant and a former clerk at the State Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic. Besides Visegrad Insight, his texts can be also found at Britské listy or Balkan Insight and he is also a news reporter covering Czechia and Slovakia at bne IntelliNews.

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