Translated material
The left admitted defeat
“Eurosceptics” have gained the upper hand in the Czech Republic
The two-day election campaign ended in the Czech Republic on Saturday. The victory was won by the Civil Democratic Party (CDP, 35.4% of the votes). In second place is the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSDP, 32.3%), which has ruled for the last eight years, and in third place is the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (CHRM, 12.8%). Next comes the Christian Democratic Union in coalition with the liberals (CDU-CSL) - 7.2% and the Green Party - 6.3%. The results of the vote, in which an unprecedented number of voters took part - two-thirds of all eligible voters - do not allow either party to create a parliamentary advantage in the 200-seat lower house of parliament.The most natural coalitions of factions look like this: Social Democrats and Communists (left coalition) - 100 seats, Civic Democrats together with Christian Democrats and the Green Party (right coalition) - also 100 seats. This is almost a political dead end, but there are ways out: painstaking multi-day work in search of “defectors” from the opponents’ camp (even one “defector” will give one side the required majority of 101 votes) or the gradual unwinding of a crisis option, when the Social Democrats will insist on “non-recognition” of the election results, which could lead to the calling of new parliamentary elections.
This last option seemed possible in the first hours after the election results were announced. The Chairman of the CSDP, Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek (pictured with his wife) made a very emotional statement that he did not recognize the results of the vote and believed that the democratic process had been dealt a blow comparable only to the communist coup of 1948. The President of the Republic, Vaclav Klaus, immediately gathered journalists and said that he was “shocked” by this statement and saw in it disrespect for the will of voters.
On Sunday at noon, Czech state television brought together for a live meeting all five leaders of parties that had crossed the five percent threshold to enter parliament. Mirek Topolanek (GDP), Jiri Paroubek (ČSDP), Vojtěch Filip (CHRM), Miroslav Kalousek (CDU-CSL) and Martin Bursik (PZ) answered questions from the popular and impartial political talk show host Vaclav Moravec for an hour and a half.
As a result, Paroubek admitted the defeat of the Social Democrats. The defeated prime minister said that he would recommend his party members to “transition to the opposition.” The communists proposed creating a provisional government of popular consent with a clear mandate, limited both in tasks and in time, to overcome the crisis. But this idea was rejected by the meeting participants.
The victorious civil democrat Topolanek, who had repeatedly denied the possibility of an alliance with the communists, admitted that the country was faced with tasks that needed to be solved together with all parliamentary parties. This means that politicians are ready for dialogue. By the way, all participants in yesterday’s live meeting repeatedly spoke about personal and party responsibility to voters and the need to develop a democratic culture. Each of the five leaders agreed that pension and tax reforms and the fight against corruption are among the priorities. Immediately after the television broadcast, some commentators began to talk about a possible “grand coalition” like the German one, which at first seemed completely impossible, but became a reality.
One important topic was missing from the heated debate: the role of the Czech Republic in the European Union. Few people noticed that the Czech Republic became the second state after Poland among the new EU members in which “Eurosceptics” won. Politicians did not talk about Russia either, but no special changes in Czech foreign policy are expected in this area.