The June 2002 elections have returned a government coalition of left and right that has something for everyone, from President Havel to the EU. But, the better-than-expected Communist vote threatens to spoil the party.
Introduction
Parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic on 14th/15th June, 2002. Since the last poll in 1998 the country had been ruled by a minority Social Democrat (ČSSD) government tolerated by the second largest party, the centre-right Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in what became known as the ‘opposition agreement’.
This arrangement has been subject to furious criticism from certain quarters within the political elite of the Czech Republic and attempts have been made on several occasions to bring it to an end. However, defying nay-sayers, the government survived its 4 year mandate.
Compared with neighboring transition countries like Poland, the Czech economy has performed reasonably well over the past four years and the country is on course for entry into the EU along with other first wave of applicants in 2004. But many commentators fear that its successes are built on fragile foundations. For example, the state’s coffers have been filled by several lucrative privatization deals in the banking and energy sector. Many wonder whether there is enough productive strength in the economy to produce sufficient tax revenue once the country’s remaining ‘blue chip’ assets have been sold off.
The economy and the effects of EU membership on jobs and future investment were major concerns for the Czech electorate in 2002 but other issues appeared in the pre-election period that affected the final results. In Spring, 2002 the European Parliament began to consider whether legislation (still on the statute book) covering the post-war expulsion of ethnic Germans and Hungarians from the former Czechoslovakia were compatible with EU membership of its successor states.
The Beneš Decrees, as they were called, had been under attack by German expellee organizations for some time but it was thought that a treaty of understanding signed in 1997 between the Czech Republic and Germany had put the matter to rest. Its re-emergence in 2002 caused many Czechs living in the border regions with Austria and Germany to fear that their homes and land could be the subjects of future restitution claims. This unease was to be reflected in their voting patterns.
