The Prague Café. No, that´s not a coffee-house I reccomend you visit. It is a term denoting the unhappy populace of the Czech capital, Prague. Or so the current president says.
In 2013, the Czech Republic experienced the very first direct election of the president. After a tight first round, Miloš Zeman stole a narrow victory with 54% of the popular vote. Take a note, America, popular vote. Miloš Zeman, a poltician known especially for his close relations with Russia, was popular mainly in the countryside, whereas his opponent Karel Schwarzenberg, in big cities. Prague was one of those cities where Mr. Schwarzenberg won by a big margin. Since then the Prague citizens held many public protests against the president, because of his disgraceful behaviour in office. One could make comparisons to the president elect Donald Trump. Trump supporters (ehm, I mean Zeman supporters) have since then called unhappy citizens as "Prague Café", mainly based on the fact that people from Prague like to spend time in coffee-bars. If you find nothing wrong with that, thats because there isnt. What at first was considered a slur was later used by everyone to describe anti-zeman activists. Even by themselves.
After all these years people are starting to finally understand that Zeman might not have been the right choice, and many persons of the public sector and organizations have searched for the right man/woman to stand against Zeman in the 2018 elections. One of those people is Karel Janeček, a Czech matematician, philanthropist and billionaire. And this guy truly is a genius. In 2012 he presented a evolutionary project called Democracy 2.1. that introduced a whole new concept of voting. The idea is that the votar has multiple votes. Not only plus votes, but also one minus one. This would create a fairer result, because one would simply not vote for the lesser evil as one does now (hence the presidential election in the US) but could freely choose what he feels is right and also stop a biggot or even an extremist being elected.
Mr. Janeček initiated an internet game called President 21, which uses this system on finding the right candidate for the presidential election in 2018. You have three positive votes (thumbs ups) and one negative (thumb down). Since the launch in December, 40 thousand people have joined in to play, but the game has been criticized for being a game of the Prague Café. That is probably true, since the last place is being occupied by Miloš Zeman with 17 thousand negative votes and about 3,5 positive ones. It will for sure be interesting to watch how the game goes on. Janeček has said that he will try and share the game even offline, especially so that older people can join in (and vote for Zeman) and that he will also eventually erase people who publicly decline the idea of running for office.
There have so far been 265 people nominated for the presidency in this game, about 100 of whom I find respectable to even consider as qualified, and about 20 of them who I wouldnt mind seeing in the Prague Castle in two years. Have a look yourself and maybe cast a cheeky vote or two? Or three? I genuinly find this electoral system progressive and worth a try, even if not in a such a big election as the presidential one is.
PS.: Yes, Jaromír Jagr has been nominated and to this day holds the 14th place with 1500 positive votes and 300 negative ones. :P
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