Resumen de To flog a dead horse
The Czech Republic is one of the members of the so-called Visegrád Four and, since 2004, a member of the European Union. Just like other members of the V4 it experienced communist regime which ruled the country (typically in a ruthless manner) for forty years (since February 1948 until November 1989). In spite of this being thirty years, the country’s past still affects the political culture and the mentality of its populace and, to a certain extent, the country’s legal culture.
We have seen a significant shift on the Czech political scene in recent years, with populists dominating the political discourse, albeit somewhat more timid compared with other countries, who govern with the support from nationalists and communists. Serving his second term in the office, the president of the Czech Republic is clearly “East-oriented” and his rhetoric features opinions from the dictionary of xenophobes and racists. Although the Czech Republic is just not yet following in the footsteps of Hungary or Poland, some of the voters have become increasingly nationalist and Euro-sceptic.
This text attempts to ask the question how the Czech legislation in the area of social protection reflects the aforementioned tendencies. I shall focus on the legal framework concerning employment vis-à-vis foreigners as well as the placement of EU employees in the Czech Republic. Other topic shall include the status of foreigners within some Czech social security systems, especially healthcare and the access to it by foreigners. These aspects will be taken into consideration within the framework of analyses of some key decisions of Czech courts—the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court. I shall illustrate, using the most serious legal issues regarding the access to the Czech labor market and the social system by third-country nationals, how inappropriate legislation can contribute to grey or black economy. As a result, foreigners are even more vulnerable than they naturally are upon arrival in a new country.
The following pages will attempt to explain the “half way there” situation in which a certain European society is turning away, in certain aspects, from the freedom it acquired thirty years ago but, at the same time, it has still retained fundamental institutions and guarantees of democracy, such as independent judicial branch and police. The Czech society has not yet succumbed to the rough nationalism that goes hand in hand with the impairment of democracy (which tendencies are evident recently in Hungary or Poland); on the other hand, it has for a long time been showing closeness and refusal of outside influences, which may constitute grounds for the development of nationalism in the legal culture and the society as such.
