Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy

Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
Party leader	Vojtěch Filip
founding	March 31, 1990
Headquarters	Politických Vězňů 9, 111 21 Praha 1
Alignment	Communism Marxism Left-wing populism EU skepticism
Colours)	red
Seats in the House of Representatives	15/200
Senate mandates	0/81
Number of members	49,000 (2015)
International connections	International meeting of communist and workers' parties
MEPs	1/21
European party	European Left (EL) (observer status)
EP Group	Confederal Group of the European United Left (GUE / NGL)
Website	www.kscm.cz

The Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy (KSČM) , German  Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia , is a Czech political party . The chairman of the party is Vojtěch Filip . The KSČM has observer status in the European Left Party .

history

The KSČM was founded on March 31, 1990 as the successor party to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ).

The decision to reorganize the state party and to establish two separate parties was made during the extraordinary session on December 20, 1989. Since the KSČ represented both the Czech Republic and Slovakia , a reorganization was necessary after the collapse of Czechoslovakia .

The KSČM, which participates as an observer in the European Left (EL), was also involved in the founding of the initiative of communist and workers' parties in Europe (INITIATIVE), but did not join it.

present

The party had around 51,000 members in 2013. In the House of Representatives election in the Czech Republic in 2002 , it received 18.5% of the votes cast, its best result since the introduction of free multi-party elections in 1990. With 41 members, it was the third largest group in parliament. In the 2004 European elections it was the second largest party in the Czech Republic with 6 out of 24 seats. In the parliamentary elections in the summer of 2006 , however, the KSČM suffered heavy losses and lost around a third of all votes and seats.

Of all the parties in the Czech Republic, KSČM is the furthest left. It claims to represent the interests of the socially weak in the sense of socialism or a left-wing politics and advocates social justice and an equal distribution of wealth . Andrej Zaslove classifies them as left-wing populist . KSČM advocates greater state involvement in the economy. Your party program provides for a socialization of the key segments of the economy (banking, transport, telecommunications, energy supply, mining, etc.). The party is opposed to the Czech membership of NATO and sees the Allied intervention in the former Yugoslavia as aggression. The EU membership of the Czech Republic is still controversial within the party.

The party ran a youth organization headed by Milan Krajča , the Communist Association of Youth (KSM), which was banned on October 2, 2006 by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic. At the beginning of November of the same year, the House of Lords decided to set up an examination commission to check the KSČM's loyalty to the constitution.

The party owns the publishing house of the Czech daily Haló noviny .

After the elections to the parliaments of the regions of the Czech Republic on 17./18. In October 2008 the KSČM formed government coalitions as a junior partner with the ČSSD in the Karlovarský kraj and Moravskoslezský kraj regions and tolerated the ČSSD minority government in the Plzeňský kraj , Středočeský kraj and Kraj Vysočina regions . For the first time since 1989, the party is again involved in government responsibility at the second administrative level in the Czech Republic. The KSCM was able to achieve this good position in the regional elections on 12./13. Expand October 2012. It gained significantly in all regions and even became the strongest force in the Ústí nad Labem and Karlový Vary regions. In the Ústí region , the party has provided a Hejtman for the first time since 1990 with Oldřich Bubeníček since these elections .

In the early elections to the House of Representatives on October 26, 2013, the KSČM was able to gain slightly (+ 3.64%) and received 14.91% of the votes or 33 seats. In 2013, 2 of 81 senators were represented in the Senate who joined the two senators from the Civil Rights Party - Zeman's People and the Senator from the regional party Severočeši.cz - to form a common faction.

The 2017 parliamentary elections ended with 7.76% for the party and only 15 out of 200 MPs with a historically poor result. However, for the first time, the party was also included in the formation of a government at the national level. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš formed a minority government of his party ANO in 2011 and the Social Democrats , which is based on the votes of the KSČM within the framework of a tolerance agreement.

Even if the number of members has been steadily declining since 1989, the KSČM with around 49,000 members (as of 2015) is still by far the largest Czech party in terms of the number of party members, ahead of the KDU-ČSL (around 27,500).

Election results

House of Representatives elections

year	Share of votes	Seats
1990	13.2%	33
1992	14.1%	35
1996	10.3%	22nd
1998	11.0%	24
2002	18.5%	41
2006	12.8%	26th
2010	11.3%	26th
2013	14.9%	33
2017	7.76%	15th

Senate elections

year	Share of votes	Won seats
1996	14.3% (1st ballot) 2.0% (2nd ballot)	2, total of 2
1998	16.5% (1st ballot) 5.8% (2nd ballot)	2, 4 in total
2000	17.8% (1st ballot) 13.0% (2nd ballot)	0, 3 in total
2002	16.5% (1st ballot) 7.0% (2nd ballot)	1, 3 in total
2004	17.4% (1st ballot) 13.6% (2nd ballot)	1, 2 in total
2006	12.7% (1st ballot) 4.5% (2nd ballot)	0, 2 in total
2008	-	1, 3 in total
2010	10.23%	0, 2 in total
2012	17.44% (1st ballot) 15.50% (2nd ballot)	1, 2 in total
2014	9.74%	0, 1 in total
2016	9.50% (1st ballot) 1.35% (2nd ballot)	0, 1 in total

Regional elections

year	Share of votes	Seats
2000	21.14%	161
2004	19.68%	157
2008	15.3%	114
2012	20.43%	182
2016	10.55%	86

Local elections

In the local elections in November 2002, according to the KSCM, 5799 KSCM candidates were city councilors, 374 mayors. In the elections in October 2006 there were 4,268 city councilors and 284 mayors.

European elections

year	Share of votes	Seats
2004	20.3%	6th
2009	14.2%	4th
2014	11.0%	3
2019	6.94%	1

Web links

• KSČM homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://zpravy.idnes.cz/pocet-clenu-cxz-/domaci.aspx?c=A150401_183007_domaci_hv
2. ↑ 17 IMCWP, List of Participants ( Memento from January 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ Andrej Zaslove: Here to Stay? Populism as a New Party Type. In: European Review 16: 319-336.
4. ↑ Markéta Kachlíková: Linke wins district and senate elections ( memento of October 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Radio Prague, October 14, 2012, accessed on November 18, 2012
5. ^ [1] Message on www.idnes.cz (Czech) from April 5, 2015, accessed on April 5, 2015
6. ↑ Homepage of KSCM ( Memento from November 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive )