WHAT'S ON BRITSKÉ LISTY

The Left Needs to Reflect Over Own Mistakes

31. 5. 2010 / Milan Daniel

Was it just the mistake of voters, though? Was it not the fault mostly of the leftist parties, once they allowed themselves to be taken into a social and generational defensive and was able to catch only low income voters with their pleasing slogans?

The Social Democrats were unable to bring modern themes, closer to the social middle, before the elections. It operated with easy slogans, about which one didn't have to think much deep, in contrast with what they got in terms of propaganda from the Right and the media, which is on their side. Social Democrats offered a bunch of lies and impossible promises, which are not possible to realize because we simply do not have money for them. The main argument used by the Right -- the country's debts -- passed around the Left like an intrusive fly, which they were not able to turn around.

Jiří Paroubek contributed to the low levels of trust towards the Social Democrats with his behavior. While Kalousek convinced the inexperienced voters with pretending to be a caring administrator of our money, the Social Democratic leader played the role of the bad guy.

There was just a few young people in the list of candidates by the Communist and Social Democratic parties -- most of them were people who could not excite the voters. When I studied the results from my region, I found in relation to this, two examples of how even those parties` voters themselves seem to prefer their candidates: thanks to preferential votes, 29 year old lawyer Jiří Chvojka was elected even though he was in the 19th (!) place on the official list. 25 year old Květa Končická was picked up from the 4th place by preferential votes.

Those older people that had been chosen by their parties to top the list were rejected. But even on the Civic Democrats side, thanks to the preferential voting of so many voters against the party mafia bosses, Chrudim's 35 year old Jan Čechlovský got from his initial 9th place in the list and 39 year old Radim Jirout from 16th place.

The Left was not able even to bring up the ecological themes with which it would have the chance to catch young voters from the political center. And not only the ecology related to Nature, but also the ecology of people and other related disciplines, which help ensure the kind of quality of life that once the Green Party, albeit untrustworthy, offered in their program.

We could find many such themes, as for example something I feel close to, the issue of immigration.

Podobných témat by se dala najít celá řada, namátkou zmíním třeba mně osobně blízké téma přistěhovalectví. A social, as a consequence election issue, from which is not possible to gather political force, though.

The foreign policy of the Social Democrats was pro-European Union, but when it comes to controversial themes, like for example the presence of Czech troops in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq or the recognition of Kosovo, it was ambivalent. The Social Democratic party were not able to formulate their positions uncompromisingly and were afraid to use widely available arguments against the lies, spitting and evils done against them.

The Czech Left will now have 4 years to not only benefit from the unpopular policies that will come from non-popular politicians, especially from the right wing faction represented by Kalousek. Although mainly so that it has time to reflect deeply about its own politics.

That is true for ČSSD the same as well as for (with a lot of underlined points) the Communists. If the Left in general wants to succeed, it has to convince mainly the voters from the political center that it practices modern politics, well thought out and with the social perspective, that will administrate the public funds with care. And that it doesn't allow itself to be forced by partners who should actually be on the other side of the political spectrum.

The Left will not succeed if it doesn't go back to firm principles and a certain dose of radicalism and if it doesn't offer younger candidates with clear opinions, who could have the chance to attract their own generation.

To simply oppose all expected right wing government steps is not enough on the way to success. A political opponent of the right should be able to recognize even the positive side of certain measures, but at the same time has to sharply criticize the negative consequences of such acts, besides offering their modifications. It will have 82 mandates in the parliament to do it. To pass changes and laws it will not be enough, but to open constructive criticism channels it is.

And the Left can start with the campaign for the next general elections already now, because now they have to prepare for the regional and the Senate elections. In a globalized society, over which linger the consequences of an economic crisis, the regional elections are a great opportunity for presenting locally oriented economic systems. That is a theme especially tailored for the Left.

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