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Miloš Zeman Saved the Future of the Czech Left

1. 6. 2010 / Václav Adam

I admitt that in the end I voted for the Social Democrats, even if with a lot of disgust. I did it out of tradition, and because I considered it the lesser evil of from the parties which had a chance to cross the minimum limit to enter the low and high chambers. And it was also out of solidarity with a party against which there were so many attacks before the elections. However, it seems to me, even though I personally don't know anybody from the representants of ČSSD, there aren't many clever people among them. And those who are smart seem to me as spineless. That's not just a problem of the Social Democrats, but of the whole political scene in Czech Republic -- that intelligent and at the same time people with character is rare.

The main theme of these elections was evidently the State debt. The Greek crisis helped it. In Czech society prevails the belief, even if not totally correct, that the Right is more competent when it comes to solving debts than the Social Democrats.

And the Right exploited well this issue during the campaign. While the answers from the Social Democrats about solutions to those problems were very cloudy, ODS surrounded itself with a group of economists and tried to pass an image of responsibility and budgetary discipline. The fact that ODS also didn't present anything much concrete is for another discussion...

TOP 09 made from the Czech indebting their front-door issue. They even sent people through the mail a bill with the amount each citizen currently owes, which I consider indecent, but that to my surpise didn't damage the party. It is necessary to realize that in the Czech lands there is a tradition of financial moderation already from the time of the First Republic -- just remember Rašín's deflational monetary policies. But ČSSD underestimated that issue. Because of that it lost those undecided voters, ideologically in the center, who in the past were responsible for the votes that won the Social Democrats the elections, because they then chose between what they considered the lesser evil among the two top parties. On top of it, there was here the "New Party" phenomenon or parties that pretended to be new.

Miloš Zeman, in my opinion correctly, criticized both bigger parties, because their plans wouldn't really solve the economic crisis and unemployment. Zeman became prime minister in 1998 thanks to the Opposition Agreement signed with his main rival ODS. Back then many right wingers hoped that the Czech Left will stain itself forever. Their hopes were not fulfilled. Zeman's government didn't have an easy task to deal with, it is enough to remember the problems in the banking sector, but it was able to také the country out of the economic crisis and set the foundations for future growth.

Miloš Zeman maybe got afraid that the current ČSSD would not survive with the people who is representing the party nowadays. It could be that the main objective of his latest political mission was to defend against that possible destruction of social democracy. It is very well known that he has the thinking process of a chess-player, who thinks many moves ahead. Of course I cannot see inside his head. But remember his smile and various previously prepared sentences. Maybe it was not only relief about being able to go back to his homes in the Vysočina mountains.

ČSSD got a chance to clean itself in the opposition. To generate new leaders. And benefit from its role in the opposition. The upcoming center right government will not have an easy situation at all, even though we never saw a majority of 118 mandates before.

Finance Minister Janota warned about the need to quickly find 60 billion Czech crowns. We'll see how the new government will solve this and what will be the consequences. The macroeconomic situation is not easy. Budget cuts can suffocate economic growth and the weaker the growth, the bigger will be the shortfalls on the revenue side of the budget.

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