Key cities like Prague and Brno have no reform-wing KSČM representatives heading the party election rolls. Former party chairman Miroslav Grebeníček will head the Brno ticket. He's at home in Southern Moravia, where he enjoys a loyal following.

The situation in Prague is even worse. Jiří Dolejš, a reformist in tune with the modern European radical left, lost his spot on the ticket. Instead, a red flag is flying above the head of KSČM deputy chairman Václav Exner, a super-conservative Marxist-Leninist. The fact that he's registered in red-baiter Petr Cibulka's lists as a former StB (secret police) agent codenamed Izák hasn't damaged him in the least.

In the third spot after Exner and František Beneš is Marta Semelová, the chairwoman of a Prague KSČM organization. She's an honorary member of the Communist Union of Youth, an organization which calls for violent revolution. Semelová's speeches have only one point --- to glorify comrade Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovakia's first "workers' president."

It's only an illusion that the whole Communist Party is as liberal as, let's say, Miloslav Ransdorf, now a Czech Member of the European Parliament. The KSČM is defining itself, however, as a radical left power. As such, the party has a chance to attract some undecided voters.

Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek can't be happy with this situation. If his ruling Social Democrats win the elections, he'll have to find an ally. It won't be possible to re-form the current three-party coalition. The center-right Freedom Union (US) will probably get less than the necessary 5 percent vote to enter Parliament. And the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) are far from a loyal coalition partner.

A new ČSSD-ODS coalition is also unlikely. Paroubek wants the ODS to sign on to a European social state, a concept the Civic Democrats (ODS) opposes.

So that leaves only the KSČM. Paroubek has gone on the record saying he'll ask the Communists to support his minority government (as it almost surely will be).

Paroubek doesn't want to form a proper coalition with the KSČM. Logically, he knows it's impossible. What could they want in return for support? They could exchange, for example, support for some plum positions in attractive departments. The Communists have supported some laws in the current Parliament, and also happen to have a number of well-placed party members, like Pavel Hojda, the chairman of the Unipetrol investigation committee, and Ludmila Brynychová at the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ).

Vojtěch Filip, who replaced Grebeníček as KSČM chairman, is a pragmatic negotiator. Whatever the make-up of the future Communist club, any discussion will be impossible. There's little room for compromise with people who praise Stalin as a benefactor of mankind.

The hardline position of some old-school Communists complicates the situation for other leftist parties. And this, with regard to the necessary right-left balance of the political scene, is a problem.

Irena Ryšánková is a parliament analyst for public broadcaster Česká televize.