Paroubek to lead merged parties

After months of negotiations and political theater, former Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek has successfully merged his newly formed 21st Century Left (LEV 21) party with the Czech National Socialist Party (ČSNS 2005) to create a new left-wing opposition group he hopes to grow by the next Parliamentary elections in 2013.

The merger effectively ends the long-marginalized ČSNS 2005, which served as a tolerated opposition party during communism but has for the past 20 years battled financial problems and never regained any seats in Parliament. Paroubek, who formerly headed the Social Democrats (ČSSD), had been in negotiations with ČSNS 2005 to possibly join the party after he started hinting at plans to leave the ČSSD. For months, he debated whether or not to join ČSNS 2005 or form his own party, and the merger, announced Nov. 12, seems to combine both options.

The merger of the parties comes at the expense of former ČSNS 2005 Chairman Karel Janko, who, while originally enthusiastic about Paroubek's comeback potentially reviving his party, later opposed accepting Paroubek into ČSNS 2005. After announcing the formation of LEV 21, Paroubek invited members of ČSNS 2005 to join his party. In an Oct. 8 vote, ČSNS 2005 voted to accept Paroubek into the party, which effectively ousted Janko from his post. At the party's national congress Nov. 12, Janko was escorted from the building by police after being told by delegates he was no longer a party member.

"As I had previously assumed, this is obviously a hostile takeover of our party for the purpose of liquidating it," Janko said. "This reminds me strikingly of the merger of the Social Democrats and the Communist Party in 1948."

He added Paroubek feels the need to "hide his dirt in a clean party."

Paroubek maintains he is merely cooperating with like-minded people to create a new left-of-center party to keep the opposition ČSSD from going "too far right." Janko, he said, stopped being one of those like-minded people.

"I don't know what happened, but Janko changed his mind by 180 degrees," Paroubek said. "This clearly disrupted not only my faith in his party, but also that of his colleagues."

Jack Buehrer can be reached at
jbuehrer@praguepost.com