Česká strana sociálně Demokratieická

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Česká strana sociálně democická
Czech Social Democratic Party
logo
Jan Hamáček
Party leader Jan Hamáček
founding 1878
Headquarters Lidový dům (Palace of the People / Losy von Losinthal Palace)
Hybernská 7
110 00 Prague
Alignment Social Democracy
Keynesianism
Colours) orange
Seats in the House of Representatives
15/200
Senate mandates
13/81
Number of members approx. 24,000
International connections Socialist International (SI), Progressive Alliance
MEPs
0/21
European party Party of European Socialists (PES / PES)
Website www.cssd.cz

The Česká strana sociálně democická [ ˈtʃɛskaː ˈstrana ˈsotsɪaːlɲɛ ˈdɛmokratɪtskaː ] (abbreviated ČSSD ), German  Czech Social Democratic Party , is a social democratic political party in the Czech Republic , member of the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists . The party chairman is Jan Hamáček .

It was one of the dominant parties in the Czech Republic until the parliamentary elections in October 2017. She placed in the Sněmovna , the House of Representatives, the largest and second largest parliamentary group and from 1998-2006 and 2014-2017 the Prime Minister (most recently Bohuslav Sobotka ). It was also one of the dominant parties in the Senate for many years.

ČSSD suffered a heavy defeat in the elections in autumn 2017. With only 7.3% of the vote, she received only 15 parliamentary seats in Sněmovna. Sobotka, who had renounced the top candidacy and party chairmanship due to the decline in popularity in the run-up to the elections, also resigned from his parliamentary seat. Nevertheless, after long negotiations, the ČSSD has performed with the winner of the elections, the party in 2011 ANO from Andrej Babiš , again in a government involvement. It currently holds five ministerial posts including the interior minister.

In terms of the number of its members, around 23,000, the ČSSD is the third largest Czech party, behind the KSČM and the KDU-ČSL .

The ČSSD is often accused (especially by the ODS) of its increased willingness to cooperate with the communists ( KSČM ). This is all the more true because at the district level it has partly entered into formal coalitions with the communist party. As part of the current government participation, the party can for the first time also be tolerated at the national level by the KSČM.

history

Founded until World War I (1878–1918)

The party was founded in 1878 under the name “Sociálně democická strana českoslovanská v Rakousku” as an independent section within Austria's social democracy. In 1893 the party made itself independent of the Austrian mother party. Since 1897 she was represented in the Reichsrat (Austria) . In the same year, the party split with the resignation of five MPs who, in the dispute over the course of the party, brought into being the Czech People's Socialist Party, which was more strongly programmed for national independence . The ČSSD itself - even during the First World War - always remained loyal to the Austro-Hungarian sovereignty over the Czech Republic.

First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1939)

After the First World War and the break-up of Austria-Hungary, the party was renewed in the newly formed Czechoslovakia under the name of the "Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party of Workers". It initially played a leading role in independent Czechoslovakia . It was already the second largest force in the provisional national assembly with 47 members and provided three ministers in the first Czechoslovak government. An important representative of the party, Vlastimil Tusar , was Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1919 to 1920 . In 1920 the party was the strongest party in the parliamentary elections with 25.7% or 74 of 281 members of parliament.

Zdeněk Fierlinger (1932)

Shortly thereafter, the Marxist-Leninist-oriented wing with 23 members split off from the party and in 1921 founded the Komunistická strana Československa (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia). This further split weakened the party. In the 1925 elections she received only 8.9% of the vote. Nevertheless, with the exception of the years 1926 to 1929, she was involved in all the governments of Czechoslovakia until 1938.

After the Munich Agreement in 1938, the party dissolved, the members reunited with members of the Czech People's Socialist Party to form the National Labor Party , which was conceived as a “loyal opposition” to the unity party “ Strana národní jednoty ”. This was dissolved in the course of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Some members of the party were active in the Czechoslovak government in exile in London; others, such as the former party leader Antonín Hampl , perished during the occupation.

Post-war period and ČSSR (1945–1989)

Party logo in the post-war period (1945–48) and in exile

After 1945 the party renewed itself as part of the National Front. With Zdeněk Fierlinger from 1945 to 1946 a representative of the party was again Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia. In the parliamentary elections in Czechoslovakia in 1946 , the party received 12.3% and 37 out of 300 seats. It remained well behind the results of the Komunistická strana Československa and the Czech People's Socialist Party . The years were marked by internal party disputes about how to deal with the KSČ. In the course of the February revolution in 1948, the fact that the three social democratic ministers remained in the government of Klement Gottwald made it easier for the KSČ to come to power. Many ČSSD functionaries went into exile again after the overthrow, while the remaining party under the leadership of Zdeněk Fierlinger was forcibly united with Komunistická strana Československa on June 27, 1948. The exile groups remained active as an independent ČSSD.

In connection with the Prague Spring 1968 efforts were made to resume the work of the party on the territory of Czechoslovakia. However, these were thwarted by the invasion of Soviet troops.

After the Velvet Revolution (1990-1998)

On 25/26 March 1990 the party was re-established in Prague. Jiří Horák was elected as the first chairman , who was able to prevail against the civil rights activist Rudolf Battěk as the returned representative of the exile groups . In the 1990 elections in Czechoslovakia, the party failed to get into parliaments. Some later members - including Miloš Zeman , Jan Kavan and Valtr Komárek - were elected to parliament for the Občanské fórum ("Citizens' Forum") . After the forum broke up, these members formed a “social democratic parliamentary club”. In the parliamentary elections in Czechoslovakia in 1992 , the party succeeded in making it into the Czechoslovak parliament with 7.67% in the Czech part of the country and 10 out of 150 members. In the elections to the Czech National Council that took place at the same time, the ČSSD received 6.53% of the votes and was also represented in parliament with 16 of 200 members.

Logo from 1998

However, the party only gained greater importance with the election of Miloš Zeman as party leader in 1993, who was able to prevail against Jiří Paroubek . The party, which also took on its current name with the election of Zeman, established itself under his leadership as the leading force in the left-wing party spectrum in the Czech Republic and, after the parliamentary elections in 1996, was the second largest parliamentary group in the House of Representatives after the ODS. Zeman was elected President of the House of Representatives in 1996.

Governments of Zeman, Špidla, Gross and Paroubek (1998-2006)

Miloš Zeman (2001)

The ČSSD won the early parliamentary elections in 1998 and Miloš Zeman became prime minister of a minority government tolerated by the ODS .

In the parliamentary elections in 2002 , the ČSSD was able to assert itself well: The party chairman Vladimír Špidla, newly elected after Zeman's withdrawal in 2001, inherited Zeman in a coalition government consisting of ČSSD, KDU-ČSL and US-DEU, also in the office of Prime Minister. Under his leadership, however, there were internal disputes among the party: For example, despite the corresponding majority in parliament (Senate and House of Representatives together), Miloš Zeman was unable to win through as a candidate for the ČSSD in the presidential elections in 2003, and other candidates also fell due to the lack of unity of the Party through (it surprisingly won after several ballots Václav Klaus from the ODS). Immediately after the unsuccessful presidential election, Špidla managed to defend the party leadership with 299 to 147 votes against Jiří Rusnok . Due to the disastrous results of the party in the European elections (only 8.8%), Špidla had to give up his posts as prime minister and party chairman to the previous interior minister Stanislav Gross , who continued the coalition .

Since Stanislav Gross resigned in spring 2005 due to a real estate affair, Bohuslav Sobotka was initially acting chairman of the party; In the meantime, however, the deputy chairman and new prime minister Jiří Paroubek , who was elected as the new chairman on May 13, 2006 at a party conference in Prague (immediately before the elections), had the greatest influence . He received 91.9% of the delegates' votes (of 521 delegates, 479 voted for him, 35 against him, 7 votes were invalid). Paroubek, who also continued the coalition , managed to stabilize the party again in the opinion polls.

Opposition (2006-2013)

After the House of Representatives elections in spring 2006 , in which the party had become the second strongest force, there was a parliamentary stalemate in the Czech Republic: both the "Left", ČSSD and Communists, and the "Right" bloc, consisting of ODS and KDU -ČSL and SZ , together each had 100 seats. This stalemate paralyzed political events in the Czech Republic until the end of the year. Because neither the big parties agreed on cooperation, nor did the KDU-ČSL or SZ want to belong to a government of the ČSSD that relied on the support of the communists. As a result, the constitution of the House of Representatives was only possible after a delay of several weeks, as initially no candidate achieved the majority required to elect a chairman. The ODS chairman Mirek Topolánek, who was commissioned by President Klaus to form a government after the constitution of the chamber in September 2006, was only able to form a majority-qualified government in January 2007 after two MPs had left the ČSSD faction and agreed to tolerate one Right-wing government agreed. Jiří Paroubek took over the post of "head of the opposition". As such, he managed to overthrow the minority government of Prime Minister Topolánek in March 2009 with a vote of no confidence after individual members of the ODS and SZ refused to trust their own government.

In 2007 Miloš Zeman left the party after an internal dispute over the political course. Among other things, Zeman was accused of having contractually guaranteed an excessive fee to the lawyer in a legal dispute related to restitution claims against the party headquarters. Paroubek tried, among other things, in public calls to bring Zeman back into the party. He was also under discussion again as the party's candidate for the 2013 presidential election, but finally broke with the ČSSD in autumn 2009 when he started his own political movement with the Strana práv občanů (Civil Rights Party).

After the relatively poor performance in the 2010 elections to the House of Representatives (–10 percentage points, but the ČSSD was the strongest parliamentary group) and because of a bourgeois majority no prospect of government participation , Paroubek resigned from the party chairmanship. Bohuslav Sobotka took over the party leadership on a provisional basis. On March 18, 2011, Sobotka was officially elected party chairman in the second ballot with 304 against 258 votes for his challenger, Michal Hašek . Paroubek resigned from the party in 2011 and together with the Czech National Socialist Party, which had remained insignificant after 1990, founded the Národní socialisté - levice 21. století (People's Socialists - Left of the 21st Century).

In the presidential election in January 2013 , the deputy party chairman Jiří Dienstbier ran for the ČSSD . However, with 16.12% of the vote and rank 4, he could not reach the runoff election. It was won by the former chairman Miloš Zeman , to whose election in the runoff election the party leadership, but not the defeated candidate Dienstbier, called for.

Sobotka government (2014-2017)

Bohuslav Sobotka

The ČSSD was again the strongest political force in the early parliamentary elections in 2013 with 20.45% or 50 out of 200 members. With the worst result since 1992, however, the party fell well short of expectations, especially since the party was unable to benefit from the falling popularity and the termination of the previous center-right government due to a corruption and espionage affair. After the election, an open power struggle broke out between the party leader and top candidate Bohuslav Sobotka and his deputy Michal Hašek . With the support of President Miloš Zeman , among others , Hašek tried to overthrow party leader Sobotka. However, since Sobotka received unexpectedly high support in the party and in the public, Hašek resigned on November 8, 2013 from the party's vice-chairmanship.

After that, Sobotka was able to successfully hold coalition talks with the newly founded ANO 2011 party of the entrepreneur Andrej Babiš and the traditional KDU-ČSL . In the new Bohuslav Sobotka government on January 29, 2014 , the ČSSD is represented by 7 ministers in addition to the prime minister (ANO 2011 - 6 ministers, KDU-ČSL - 3 ministers). For the first time since 2006, the Social Democrats were directly involved in the Czech government again.

In early May 2017, the Sobotka government fell into a deep crisis after allegations of tax fraud against the chairman of the ANO. As a result, Sobotka resigned as party chairman in mid-June 2017 and renounced the top candidacy in the 2017 parliamentary elections . The party chairmanship was provisionally taken over by his deputy Milan Chovanec , the top candidate for Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek ; Sobotka initially remained head of government.

Decline since 2017

In the 2017 parliamentary elections , the ČSSD lost more than 13 percentage points and became only the sixth-strongest parliamentary group with 15 of 200 members, while the ANO in 2011 was by far the strongest parliamentary group. For the presidential elections that took place a short time later , the party refrained from nominating its own candidate. The ČSSD initially left the government as a result of the elections. The ANO chairman Andrej Babiš formed a minority government , for which, however, he could not obtain approval in the House of Representatives. After the previous speaker of parliament, Jan Hamáček , was elected as the new party chairman in February 2018, he agreed to hold talks about the party's entry into government. In the new cabinet formed on June 27, 2018 after lengthy negotiations , the ČSSD is entitled to 5 ministerial posts. The cabinet in parliament is dependent on tolerance by the KSČM .

The 2019 European elections ended with another heavy defeat. With 3.95% of the vote and a decline of more than 10 percentage points, the party failed to make it into the European Parliament .

Development of the party name

ČSSD party book from 1945
  • 1878–1893: Sociálně-democická strana českoslovanská v Rakousku (Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party in Austria ), as part of the Austrian Social Democracy (until 1918 still as the Czech Social Democratic Party in Austria , then appointed under Reumann 1919/20 a Viennese city councilor, Bohumil Sirotek , then absorbed into the SDAP )
  • 1894–1938: Českoslovanská sociálně democická strana dělnická (Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party of Workers), as an independent party
  • 1938–1941: Národní strana práce (National Labor Party) - Unified party of the Social Democrats and National Socialists
  • 1945–1948: Československá sociální demokracie (Czechoslovak Social Democracy)
  • 1948–1989: The Social Democratic Party was united with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( KSČ ), but it continued to exist in exile .
  • 1990–1993: Československá sociální demokracie (Czechoslovak Social Democracy)
  • since 1993: Česká strana sociálně democická (Czech Social Democratic Party)

Election results

Election result of the ČSSD 1998
Election result of the ČSSD 2013

Election results in the elections to the Czech National Council (1990–1992) and the House of Representatives (since 1996):

  • 1990: 4.1% - 0 seats
  • 1992: 6.5% - 16 seats
  • 1996 : 26.4% - 61 seats
  • 1998 : 32.3% - 74 seats
  • 2002 : 30.2% - 70 seats
  • 2006 : 32.3% - 74 seats
  • 2010 : 22.1% - 56 seats
  • 2013 : 20.5% - 50 seats
  • 2017 : 7.3% - 15 seats

Party leader (from 1904)

  • 1945–1947: Zdeněk Fierlinger
  • 1947–1948: Bohumil Laušman
  • 1948: Blažej Vilím (in exile)
  • 1948–1972: Václav Majer (in exile)
  • 1972–1989: Vilém Bernard (in exile)
  • 1989–1990: Karel Hrubý (in exile)

Web links

literature

about history
  • Martin K. Bachstein: The social democracy in the Bohemian countries until 1938. In: Karl Bosl (Hrsg.): The first Czechoslovak Republic as a multinational party state. Oldenbourg, Munich 1979, pp. 79-100, ISBN 3-486-49181-4 (lectures at the meetings of the Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee from November 24-27, 1977 and April 20-23, 1978).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Message on the idnes.cz website (in Czech) from April 5, 2015, accessed on April 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ Not "československá" (Czechoslovakian), but "českoslovanská" (Czecho-Slavic).
  3. ↑ derstandard.at: Center-right coalition wins majority
  4. ↑ Bohuslav Sobotka is the new leader of the Social Democrats, Hašek is his deputy ( Memento from January 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ News of January 13, 2013 ( Memento of June 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 6, 2013.
  6. ^ Announcement in the Standard of October 29, 2013, accessed on October 29, 2013.
  7. ^ Putsch averted: Social democratic rebels resign , accessed on November 8, 2013.
  8. ↑ Czech Prime Minister Sobotka announces his resignation. In: Frankfurter Rundschau (online). May 2, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Czech Republic: Prime Minister Sobotka rows back from his resignation. In: Die Presse (online). May 5, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Czech Prime Minister Sobotka resigns as party leader. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (online, dpa news channel). June 14, 2017, accessed August 27, 2020 .