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ASK THE EXPERTS: No. 1, part 2: Hostile Narratives Eroding Support for Ukraine

The International Republican Institute (IRI)’s Beacon Project is launching a new expert comments series. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the IRI’s Beacon Project has been analyzing online media data from several Central and Eastern European Countries to track key narratives that have the potential to erode support for Ukraine. This tracking and mapping of meta narratives in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia is planned to continue through June 2023. More of our bi-weekly briefs can be

ASK THE EXPERTS: No. 1: Hostile Narratives Eroding Support for Ukraine

The International Republican Institute (IRI)’s Beacon Project is launching a new expert comments series. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the IRI’s Beacon Project has been analyzing  online  media  data  from  several  Central  and  Eastern  European  Countries  to  track  key narratives that have the potential to erode support for Ukraine. This tracking and mapping of meta  narratives in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia is planned to continue  through June 2023.

How do Czech and Slovak Governmental Parties Perceive the EU's Green Deal? Online monitoring of Facebook posts

As a part of the IRI's Beacon project initiative, EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy monitored Facebook posts from  Czech and Slovak political parties and their main representatives (full list below) The monitoring focused on the posts connected to the European Green Deal (GD) published between October 2021 and August 2022. An online tool, Pulsar, was used for the data collection and filtering of the results. The posts were then manually hand-coded based on the presence of pre-defined narratives, and the results were further analyzed. The goal of this research was to answer the following questions:

Green Deal Disinformation Slovakia: Ban on the sale of combustion engine cars sparked a wave of disinformation

Pro-Kremlin disinformation sources in Slovakia are increasingly focusing on climate change and European Union (EU) climate action. One of the strongly resonating topics in recent months has been the ban on the sale of internal combustion engine cars in EU member states from 2035 adopted in June. Political actors characterised the measures as Russophobic and as detrimental to the EU economy and citizens, stoking fears of energy shortages and falling standards of living using manipulative techniques and argumentative fallacies.

Prague: Large anti-government protest only a teaser for coming hot fall

The politically sleepy summer ended abruptly on Saturday (4 September), with a large anti-government on Wenceslas Square in the center of the capital Prague. The underlying theme of the demonstration, which counted some 70 thousand participants, were increasing prices and the current government’s inability to solve them’ protesters called for for the government's resignation and early elections. However, the list of demands presented by organizers from the initiative "Czech Republic First" (Česká Republika na 1. místě) was broader. The manifesto published on their website included a grab bag of demands including lowering prices of gas by direct contracts with suppliers – namely Russia – and "liberation from submission" to the EU, WHO and UN along with military neutrality. The most controversial demand was the termination of the "planned dilution of the nation", which in practice means preventing Ukrainian refugees from staying on Czech territory.  

Slovakia Green Deal: Efforts to diversify energy sources boost pro-Russian propaganda

As part of efforts to wean itself from Russian energy, the European Union has been looking to alternative sources such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), imported from the US, among others. Pro-Russian and disinformation actors downplay the importance of diversifying energy sources and suppliers, spread false claims, and sow fear and chaos in the Slovak information space.