His popularity plummets, as does the popularity of the ruling party. So the party holds a congress where it defiantly re-elects the same discredited prime minister to continue as its leader.

What does this mean? On its face it seems incomprehensible. Why would the Social Democrats (ČSSD), when facing electoral defeat, re-elect someone who seems thoroughly discredited as their leader?

The decision hints at a serious democratic deficit in Czech politics. Maybe the ČSSD apparatchiks are saying to themselves, "We are in serious trouble, and only Stanislav Gross has the ability to lead us out of this crisis, in spite of the fact that the nation regards him as the epitome of untrustworthiness."

But the decision to re-elect Gross was more likely rooted in the party's disdain for the ordinary Czech voter. I have heard the opinion that Gross' victory was secured by ČSSD apparatchiks who voted to save not a political program but their own bureaucratic posts. This prompted former ČSSD leader Miloš Zeman to say at the March 26 congress that there were both parasites and idealists in the party. And it would appear that the parasites have won the day.

The congress was a victory for the pragmatic young managers who grew up as amoral activists of the socialist youth organization in the final years of the communist regime.

It is noteworthy that at least three main representatives of the winning faction, Stanislav Gross, Bohuslav Sobotka and Martin Jahn, come from the "1970s generation," to quote a popular Czech song. These are people who were molded by the experience of the post-1968, neo-Stalinist "normalization" period. As a result, they hold mostly right-wing views.

The congress dismissed criticism of Stanislav Gross as an alleged "manipulative attack aimed at the Social Democratic Party," and refused to contemplate what might happen if the problems of Gross, his relatives, his wife and her shady friends continue. The congress did not even properly deal with the political program of the Social Democratic Party: It ignored foreign-policy issues, the relationship of the ČSSD to the European Union, unemployment and problems in the educational system and the health service. It ignored the catastrophic incompetence of the Czech judiciary and the sorry state of the roads, including the unsolved problem of the nonexistent motorway to Ostrava. Instead, the congress praised Gross and his government for their recent economic successes and basically said that it would unquestioningly support whatever they might do in the future.

But what's the alternative? Can we now turn away in disgust from the ČSSD and hope the opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) can do better? No. The ODS seems just as disdainful of the opinions and wishes of ordinary Czech voters. ODS politicians Petr Nečas and Jiří Pospíšil have stressed on Czech television that voters cannot be trusted to make decisions about important matters. This is why the ODS will never accept the idea of holding a referendum, they said.

Czech politicians have arrogantly concluded that they are above ordinary people. But in a democracy, it is the voters who are the source of political power, and their views should be respected. When will the politicians realize this?

Originally published in Czech Business Weekly HERE