Czech Parliamentary Election Is Over: What Do the Results Say?

What should be aknowledged following the Czech elections?

Czech Parliamentary Election Is Over: What Do the Results Say?

Table 1: Results of the election - Source: Czech Statistical Office, volby.cz

Creating coalitions

Such considerations could find positive responses among the public, as indicated by recent developments and electoral behaviour. An unexpected number of voters supported the SPOLU (which means „Together“). It is not a single party but a coalition made up of three individual parties: the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People´s Party (KDU-ČSL), and TOP 09. The grouping is a centre-right, liberal formation with some conservative characteristics, and is explicitly Western-oriented. They succeeded in particular because their political representatives had managed to unite, thus overcoming the above-mentioned fragmentation. An analogous tactic was adopted by the PirSTAN, another coalition constituted by the Pirate Party and the Mayors and Independents (STAN), a liberal, progressivist political force with extreme stances in foreign policy. The final synergy of the second coalition is, nevertheless, somewhat doubtful, since the Pirates as the initial leader began to lose support, while the Mayors and Independents were gradually strengthening.[2] This tendency, deepened by a sharp public campaign against the Pirates, who were depicted as new leftist revolutionaries, resulted in a considerable defeat for the Pirate Party. The coalition obtained 37 mandates, but a mere 4 of them were won by the Pirate candidates. This was enabled by the fact that it was possible to choose up to 5 candidates on the electoral list, who were then given priority within the vote-counting process.

The tendency towards forming broader coalitions found echoes among minor parties as well. The sovereigntist, national-conservative, right-wing Tricolour Movement, supported by former President Václav Klaus, agreed on close cooperation with the Free Citizens´ Party and the Freeholder Party. This bloc did not succeed, however, gaining 2.76 per cent of the votes. The question is how the individual members of both coalitions will be cooperating in the lower chamber and a potential government, and whether they will keep the joint organisational structures or tend to merge. The latter would be transparent and beneficial in terms of the long-term development of the Czech political and electoral system. The existence and candidature of dozens of parties or movements belong to the worst maladies of post-1989 political life.