Shortly after the Municipal Court in Prague upheld a three-year prison sentence for a promising TOP 09 politician, you wrote on Facebook: “This person, together with two of my fellow party members, Paroubek, Tabery, Moravec and several others, started a shitstorm against me seven years ago. ‘Dominic’ was finally the first to fall and it is finally clear to everyone what his moral profile is. Even then I knew what was what, just as I was always aware of the profile of my two party mates and the rest of the group. Feri fell today, the rest will come next. The question is not ‘really?’, but only ‘when?’.” What prompted you to write such a post?
That was my response to several articles on A2larm which discussed the trial with Feri. I never knew him personally, but at the time when the girl was against me, he was one of the ones who got into me. That surprised me quite a bit. I understand the editor-in-chief of Respekt Tabery, with whom I had a problem at the time when we were fighting for the preservation of Klánovické les, when Alexandr Vondra, who had some ties there, was against us. At that time, two editors from Respekt came to write a report, but it was never published. We communicated with Tabery, I blamed him for not publishing the report, he claimed that I was making things up. But I knew from an acquaintance from the Respekt editorial office that he was the one who made the article disappear. So I understand that Tabery had an unresolved issue with me.
Did the presenter of Czech Television also have him with you?
I knew the Moravians, but rather in a good way. At the same time, he didn’t actually say anything bad, but with such sentiment, with such a journalistic technique that people thought I was doing something to God. It was on Thursday, the day before the elections, the leaders of the parties were at his place for a debate, and he started talking to Bartoš about who is running for the Pirates in the Zlín Region. But he didn’t say anything specific. I tried to contact him after the election, but he was quite arrogant towards me. As a university teacher, I have no right to frame journalists, but they should have the duty to ask me. And not just make up some story about me without being asked any of it.
And how is it that Dominik Feri found himself among those who tried to soap you up before the elections?
I have no clue. He launched into me on social media, where he had a million followers at the time. He also ran in the elections, from the last place of the candidate. At the same time, I did not know him and he went against me. I considered him a stranger who just wanted to make himself visible. But then they piled on each other without anyone asking me any questions. The so-called self-falling shitstorm was coming at me, they were throwing manure at me without anyone asking me anything. They just made up their own story about me.
Were you not interested in the TOP 09 political star yourself?
Once a student came to me and told me what Feri was doing with those girls. That was before the affair broke out. He said that two girls independently told him the same story. As a university teacher, I am in contact with young people every day and I know the environment. And he told me that the two friends told him what happened to them. One admitted that she had been drinking, the other didn’t, she just had some lemonade. But suddenly they fell asleep, and when they woke up, they were obviously pissed off. The two did not know each other at all, but they told a de facto very similar story. And the boy was telling me that I was right, that Feri is a moron for doing things like that. It should be noted that he carried on cheerfully because at that time he was de facto untouchable.
So it was no surprise to you when the affair with Feri broke out?
I told a friend from the European Commission. “Jesus Christ, we know him here,” she responded. That surprised me. She called later and said she had to delete him from the list. They have a list of future global leaders there, and he was counted as one of them in Brussels.
In 2018, the Politico server included Dominika Feri in its ranking of 28 personalities from 28 countries who, according to him, are worth watching in 2019, as they can change the face of their country or the entire European Union in the coming years. Aren’t you surprised how the influential server and the Brussels authorities agreed?
I didn’t even register that. I have always thought that a world leader is self-made. Angela Merkel, Tony Blair. How come they have a list in Brussels of who should be the future leader? So I began to think about how the world works and that the harassment against me was probably not accidental. And I realized that the same thing happened to some European politicians at that very time.
What did you provoke those attacks against you?
It started for me in 2014. I made several public appearances, but always with the blessing of the Pirate Party. And then Peksa and partly Lipavský opposed me. That’s because I interpreted a letter from an Italian mayor who expressed regret for the massacre at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. And then I went to some kind of demonstration, the speakers of which claimed that Czech Television was lying. I responded there that it is not possible to say that, that CT is lying, that all media represent some kind of vision. There is no neutral medium in the world. And I was attacked by those shitstormists for criticizing Czech Television. I was actually criticizing those protesters in that context. Evidently, Czech Television says some things and doesn’t say some things. But that’s what all the media in the world do.
- Pirates
- foreign minister
So you found yourself between two camps, one of which, made up of journalists and politicians, decided to harm you. Can it be understood that way?
All it takes is ten of them to agree and they can eliminate someone or pick someone up. And that was probably also the case with Dominik Feri. A provincial boy, de facto. But consider that Karel Schwarzenberg defended him until the last moment. That was quite a shame. Even the chairwoman of TOP 09 kept her hands off him. But Schwarzenberg spoke as if men had the right to touch women. Why was he so protective of the boy?
We will probably never know. Why is it that Dominik Feri was so successful in the elections and in 2017 it was actually only thanks to him that TOP 09 did not fall out of the House of Representatives?
Because he knew exactly where to appear on social networks. He was the king of Instagram. And if you get young ones, you’ve won. They go to grandma and tell her who to vote for. But it doesn’t work the other way around, for grandma to go to young people and tell them who to vote for. From the point of view of political marketing, it was the most perfect project. And now the question is whether he created the project himself. We don’t know and probably never will.
But creating such videos and such projects is not cheap. Successful influencers on Instagram or TikTok have behind them teams with knowledge that is not just acquired. At Feri’s it was well organized work that cost money. Let’s not forget that it worked not only on Instagram, but also on YouTube. And the videos were very high quality, no one can just create that on their knees. He had to have a camera behind him and someone who decided to make him a star. Many young people have the illusion that if they put something on Instagram or TikTok, they will immediately have a lot of followers. Anyone who has tried it knows that it is very complicated. You need tech-savvy, creative people. But also buy the ones that will initially give you likes. Only when you have at least ten thousand of them does it start to add up.
- Pirates
- Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization
- Deputy Prime Minister
Can we therefore speak of Feri’s fall as a failed project?
It was a major operation that ended badly for him because he did what he did. A politician needs to be a little more restrained. It is true that many people in the Czech Republic are very tolerant of sexual harassment. They also don’t mind if a politician has two wives. In fact, many people, even today, are not disturbed by what Feri did, or even deny it, even though a final verdict was handed down. But it started to bother the political representation, so gradually everyone kept their hands off him.
When those structures create some global politician, he doesn’t even have to know about it. They don’t need to walk around with briefcases. It is enough to pick out people who are convinced, who have some characteristics, and help them in their career.
At the Municipal Court, prosecutor Aleš Cimbala stated about him that he shows no signs that the course of the proceedings had any educational effects on him, that there are no visible elements of any self-reflection. It was also quite telling that Dominik Feri laughed in the next room during the testimony of one of the victims, that it could be heard all the way to the courtroom. Did his exaggerated ego weigh him down?
I wasn’t there, so I can’t rate. But I have dozens of students who were either in contact with him or followed him on social media. And they told me that even before the affair broke out, they perceived him as an arrogant person. But I don’t know him; if he didn’t start saying that I was pro-Russian or something, I wouldn’t even be interested in him. So I can only say what my female students, who knew him from the time when he used to go around high schools for talks, said that he behaved very arrogantly. And at the same time he lectured on MeToo, i.e. against sexual harassment. Oh yeah… what more?
Add PL to your favorite feeds on Google News. Thank you
Did you like this article?
You can support the independence of our editorial office with a monetary donation of any amount by bank transfer to the following account:
131-981500247/0100
The QR code contains payment information, determine the amount yourself.
Are you a politician? Post whatever you want without editing. Register HERE.
Are you a reader and want to communicate with your representatives? Register HERE.
author: Jiří Hroník
Tags: Giuseppe Maiello experience Dominik Feri affair understand
-
