Opposition treaty

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The opposition treaty , actually a treaty between the Czech Social Democratic Party and the Civic Democratic Party for the creation of stable political conditions in the Czech Republic ( Czech Smlouva o vytvoření stabilního politického prostředí v České republice uzavřená mezi Českou stranou sociálněranou sociálněranou from 1998 to 1994 ) was a democratickou Political contract in force in 2002, which guaranteed the social democratic minority government of Miloš Zeman ( ČSSD ) the support of the second strongest party in the House of Representatives - the ODS led by Václav Klaus . In the opinion of critics, the time of the opposition treaty was characterized by a “back room policy” and a lack of opposition control in the House of Representatives.

history

The social democratic ČSSD won early elections to the House of Representatives in 1998 and became the strongest political force with 74 out of 200 seats. For a majority capable of governing, however, it was dependent on coalition partners. The “right-wing” parties ODS, KDU-ČSL and US could also have formed a majority together, but it was precisely this government constellation that had only broken apart before the elections. Since the Social Democrats could not agree on a government with the KDU-ČSL and US and a coalition with the unreformed communists was out of the question and they were missing three seats to a stable majority, the two big parties ČSSD and ODS finally agreed to work together on a contractual basis. ČSSD boss Miloš Zeman became prime minister of a ČSSD minority government. In return, the then ODS boss Václav Klaus was elected chairman of the House of Representatives.

As in a coalition, joint committees were agreed with the ODS to agree on factual issues, so that the ODS was in fact not represented at the cabinet table, but was able to exert some influence on government policy (especially when the budget was passed) and the Social Democrats on key political issues supported. It was also agreed that the ODS would neither introduce nor support a motion of censure in parliament. This “back room policy” between the big parties naturally met with considerable resistance from the smaller parties; partly because the big parties changed the electoral law to the detriment of the smaller parties.

This led, among other things, to the fact that the other bourgeois parties KDU-ČSL , US-DEU and ODA for their part joined together to form the so-called four - party coalition . B. were successful in the regional and senate elections in 2000.

The opposition treaty project was ended after the parliamentary elections in 2002 after the Social Democrats had agreed on a proper coalition with the KDU-ČSL and the US-DEU.

In 2006, the ODS chairman, Mirek Topolánek, hoped to achieve stability for his government by concluding another opposition agreement with the ČSSD , but the chairman of the Social Democrats Paroubek rejected such an alliance, whereupon the government was not confirmed by parliament.

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