19 Dec 2022/PSSI

The Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), as part of the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Beacon Project, monitored the Czech debate on Facebook concerning the European Green Deal, climate change, and energy-related issues in October 2022. 

Mainly the right-wing, national-conservative opposition spreads manipulative messaging on the topic while also gaining the most interactions on social media. A total of 32% of posts viewed withdrawal from the Green Deal as a systemic solution to the ongoing energy and economic crisis, which generally framed the debate around green policies. Domestic politics dominated the content of 43% of the posts, with their authors using the topics of green policies and energy-related issues to promote anti-government stances. They claimed that support of the Green Deal and other EU policies related to energy is evidence of the government’s incompetence, which will drag the Czech Republic down.

Recently, the Green Deal was pushed to the background by a more forceful appeal to limit Czech participation in the European Energy Exchange. This poses a potential threat of supporting isolationist tendencies in energy-related issues. The current situation could become a missed opportunity for stakeholders to draw attention to the Green Deal and transition to renewable sources of energy as at least a partial solution to the ongoing crisis and future energy security issues.

You can find the report here.