Filip: "We want to learn from our mistakes of the past so that we can together create a better society."
Twenty years is an eternity in politics, but for much of the two decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) has discovered that voters have long memories.
KSČM Chairman Vojtěch Filip is adamant that his party has changed course and would never “repeat the mistakes” of the communist regimes that held eastern Europe under their collective fist for more than 40 years. But Soviet and Czechoslovakian flags still hang at the party’s longtime New Town headquarters at Politických vězňů 9. Framed photographs of some of the 20th century’s most notorious communist military leaders line the offices. And, unlike most of their far-left counterparts across Europe, they have never removed the word “communist” from their name.
But as the current center-right governing coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09 and Public Affairs (VV) parties continues to lose the faith the public, left-wing parties, including the long-marginalized KSČM have begun to see increased support among would-be voters.
Filip met The Prague Post in his modest, if drab, office at KSČM headquarters on a rainy morning just one week after the latest Factum Invenium poll showed KSČM had nearly pulled even with ODS in terms of public support and had surpassed TOP 09 and VV. The left-leaning opposition Social Democrats, ČSSD, currently have the most support.
While he said he was encouraged by the poll numbers he said the party is still unlikely to find itself in the government any time soon. A fact, he said, that would keep Czechs worse off than they were during the four decades of communist rule that most citizens have spent the last 20 years trying to forget.
The Prague Post: Polls are starting to show that the voters are moving further to the left. Do you have a sense of what is pushing them that way?
Vojtěch Filip: Voters were on the left already in 2010, but the political parties that eventually created the current government coalition betrayed the them. The VV program was originally left-of-center and in some respects even more radical than that of KSČM – and VV absolutely has not fulfilled their program – the 10 percent that voted for them are seriously dissatisfied.
TPP: You can make the argument that the voters never wanted this government in the first place since ČSSD won the most votes in the last election. Is the Czech Republic more of a left-leaning country than the current coalition would indicate?
VF: This government is in complete contrast with what the citizens want. [Polls show] only 10-15 percent of people trust the coalition. And in the elections, the parties that created the coalition only had about 30% of the population support. By the election mathematics a position can be created in which the governing political parties do not get full support from voters, but it can never last long.
TPP: If you look at poll numbers the communist party has gained a lot of support since the government crisis hit in April. Is KSČM doing anything differently or is this just a direct reaction of frustration with the current government?
VF: The current government has made voters interested in what else is there offered – something more rational – and many of these voters have read our program. Also, our work in the town halls and county councils, as well as that of our deputies has shown people who we are and what we believe. Look at our local political leaders in Karlovy Vary or the Moravian-Silesian region. They have been very successful.
TPP: Former Prime Minister and ČSSD head Jiří Paroubek is saying he plans to leave ČSSD and form a new left-wing party because he believes the Social Democrats have moved too far to the right. Do you agree? Has ČSSD abandoned the left?
VF: I don’t think it is about him creating a truly left-wing party. It’s about him returning to [Czech National Socialist Party 2005] ČSNS, a party he emerged from after 1989. It’s similar to [another ČSSD chairman and Prime Minister who later left the party] Miloš Zeman – it is a dissatisfied chairman. But revenge is not a program. And if you have been watching Paroubek, he has always had a strong left-wing rhetoric. But in practice he has never been leftist. I don’t think we have too few leftist parties. There are enough of them. This is only about his personal ambitions.
TPP: But is he right in saying the ČSSD has moved to far to the right?
VF: ČSSD is right-wing! They have never been a true left-wing party.
TPP: Do you foresee a situation in which KSČM is ever part of a ruling coalition again?
VF: That doesn’t depend on us. It depends on whoever wins future elections. But we wouldn’t join a coalition just to be in power. In my view, ČSSD will not consider joining with us – especially if the Green Party and Christian Democrats ever return to the parliament. But we are not afraid of government responsibility. We have proven on the municipal and regional level –that we are capable of cooperation.
TPP: If that’s true, then why do ODS and your many other critics argue that KSČM has not evolved since the fall of the communist regime and that your party is not compatible with a modern democratic system? You still get that accusation a lot.
VF: This is just an evasive maneuver by ODS – so that it would be easier for them to fight against a political adversary. But it’s not a rational argument, although it has historically been very effective in influencing people. But this effect is no longer working these days. As you are seeing with the support we are receiving.
When these other parties make these comments about KSČM, they are always pointing to the past. At the same time, people who are now part of ODS, ČSSD, TOP 09 or VV – they’re much rather linked to the old communist party than we are. We are not former communists. Those who were the shame of the former communist party are now the shame of other political parties.
TPP: So you are compatible with a modern democratic system of government?
VF: Of course, it is compatible. We will give even more rights than those now in power. Over the past 20 years they have not given people a chance for referendum. The law has never been adopted. They limit citizens in their initiatives and do not give them economic freedom. Look at the communist party in Cyprus – do you think that is it incompatible with governance in EU?
TPP: But can you say that the current version of the communist party is capable of supporting and implementing and promoting its core beliefs while still recognizing that you are still just one party among others with free elections, a free press and other tenants of democracy?
VF: Yes. KSČM has changed. I do not understand your question. Either you did not read our political program or you do not know the last 20 years of KSČM operation. This question is beyond reality. Our party is for equality of ownership rights – which is a different principle from the past. And of course we are not so stupid to repeat the mistakes that the communist party of Czechoslovakia made for so long that it rid her of authority in the society.
TPP: Is the Czech Republic better off now than it was under communism, or is democracy a “failed experiment” in this country?
VF: To answer this, it’s necessary to look out our own social and life experience. Compare that of the past and now. Were we being robbed [under communism]? Did we have to beg for employment? Was the social security and health care system worse? We can’t convince the bankers – for instance – of this. But people who earn their living with their hands, when they take time to think about it, they will figure out what is more advantageous for them.
We do not want to return to the past, we want to learn from our mistakes of the past so that we can together create a better society. I am convinced that currently the majority of the citizens are doing worse now than they were in Czechoslovakia before 1989. This is the problem: there is an existing small group that is wealthy and significantly better off and are enjoying more rights than before. But then there is a large – very wide –group that is worse off. A two-thirds of society that was an example of the socialist state has not even been built here.
Comments are closed.