The Czech Relationship with Alcohol

Earlier this year I overheard a young Czech man discussing with his foreign friends the election of Zeman. The focus wasn’t on the policies or the man’s leadership style. It was his alleged drinking which was the problem. I’ve heard the same opinion repeated often around me and the coverage in the media and the people uploading video to YouTube shows the feeling is far from isolated. 

This isn’t surprising in itself. Seeing a man who was president for only a matter of minutes stagger and stumble to his chair and then sway during the interview would cause many people to cringe. But hang on a minute. This is in a country which takes pride in both its drinking and its beer. Is Zeman really such an anomaly as far as drinking is concerned?

The World Health Organization had ranked the Czech Republic second in terms of overall alcohol consumption: 16.45 L of pure alcohol for the period of 2003–2005 for every person fifteen years and over. However, the results were published in 2011. A more recent study from 2010 of European nations records 11.4 L per person, placing it just above the EU average.

The hallowed position of beer in Czech culture will not be lost on anyone who lives here. One question I’m constantly asked is what I think of Czech beer. I’m also aware of the puzzled glances I’ve received in social situations on the rare occasions when I have declined to have a beer or opt for water.

“Concerning beer, the largest section of Czech men and women think it is a part of Czech culture and tradition, that the drinking of beer belongs to the inhabitants of the Czech lands and that it is something we can be proud of.”

Though beer may rule people’s hearts and to some extent livers, wine and spirits have their place too. The methanol poisonings in 2012, when two men provided spirits containing methanol to roadside vendors, witnessed a halt, though such concerns would appear to be at an end. Fruit brandies are part of the history and the number of distilleries has risen according to the Union of Distillers of the Czech Republic, yet the consumption of hard liquor has been slightly declining from 1992 to 2010, which was before the scandal.

The report says that a correlation between drinking and shame was only strong with women. The less a woman drank, the more likely she was to feel ashamed. Men who drank less tended to have mixed feelings or not care.

Drunk-driving, however, was the most unacceptable behavior on the same table. And the law doesn’t reflect the cultural position of alcohol. The labor code prohibits drinking at work and it’s said breath tests are possible.

“So why doesn’t it apply to the office of the president?” a friend asked, no doubt voicing a concern of many.

I don’t think the guy on the tram, or the many Zeman critics around me, are in a small minority but I don’t think what they say can be taken at face value. It’s not the drinking but what the drinking represents, a fear to the pre-revolution days of vodka soaked leaders and the sway of Moscow. Despite the pride and place of beer, the meaning of alcohol to some people is not clear-cut. 

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