Inauguration of the newly elected President Petr Pavel, March 9, 2023, Prague Castle. President Petr Pavel and First Lady Eva Pavlova greet each other from the balcony in the third castle courtyard. In the foreground hangs the presidential standard, which in 2015 the Ztohoven group exchanged for red shorts in protest against the policies of the then president Miloš Zeman.
Prague – The presidential standard, which in 2015 the Ztohoven group exchanged for red shorts in protest against the policies of the then president Miloš Zeman, returned to Prague Castle. The standard underwent restoration and the symbols that the artists had removed and cut were returned to it. Today, President Petr Pavel unfurled it from the balcony during his speech to the people in the third courtyard of the castle and stated that the standard will be part of the Prague Castle tour.
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Petr Pavel decided to return the standard to the Castle during the campaign, the condition was that Andrej Babiš would not win the election. The artists provided it to him, and since January the standard has been in safekeeping. “We see it as an empty symbol returning to the Castle, which the new president will probably try to fulfill, he himself proclaims something like that. He will restore the values to which the symbols we were actually talking about relate to,” said a ČTK member today group acting under the name Petr Žílka.
“We find it significant that an emptied piece of rag is being returned, from which the president will once again make a standard, just like the entire office. We see it as space for new content. The question is what will happen to those collective scars on the soul,” said Petr Žílka.
After their event, they claimed that they had cut up the standard and given it to people. In January, Petr Žílka told ČTK that only part of the standard was cut. It consists of two layers of white fabric, a base or carrier, on which national symbols are embroidered on both sides – we steamed them and cut them, the base was preserved, he said. “During the past months, they had the standard renovated and re-stretched the graphic part that we cut,” he said today. According to him, the re-hanging of the standard concluded the whole story of exchanging the standard for shorts.
