ODS celebrates a rocky 20 years

Two decades after its formation, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) celebrated its 20th birthday in much the same way a divorced couple might celebrate their wedding anniversary.  

A war of words between President Václav Klaus and former Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, the party's two most influential leaders over the years, highlighted the event April 21.

The fete, held at Prague's Žofín Palace, saw about 600 former and current ODS members and office holders turn out to toast the longevity of the country's most successful post-communist party. But after Prime Minister and current ODS head Petr Nečas kicked the party off with a short, largely positive speech, those in attendance were treated to a public sparring match between Topolánek and Klaus, who have feuded since Topolánek succeeded Klaus - the party's founder and longtime ideological face - as ODS chairman in 2002.

Topolánek joked that he was surprised not only to have been invited to speak at the event, but that he accepted the invitation, as well.

"It's not that I was dramatically missing you or that I came here to complain, or, God forbid, to give advice," he said.

He told the group that the ODS is largely to blame for the current crisis plaguing the government for failing to hold true to the ideals on which it was created in 1991, suggesting the ODS has gotten drunk off its own power.

"Yes, we govern today, but let's not be mistaken: Our values, our existence, our future is threatened more now than it was at the beginning when we were spending hard years in opposition - precisely because we lead the Cabinet," he said.

After taking a thinly veiled verbal swipe at Klaus for the recent video clip of him seeming to steal a pen during a visit to Chile, Topolánek chastised current ODS leadership for its failure to act independently of the president, who is no longer an official member of the party.

"Stop acting like adolescents who are nervously popping pimples and waiting for Daddy's advice," he said. "We are 20!"

Klaus, who refused to arrive to the event until after Topolánek had spoken and left Žofín, later took the stage and, without mentioning the former prime minister by name, declared that after he left the party in 2008, the ODS began to drift away from its pro-business roots.

"I reacted to the first sight of a shift in the party's priorities," he said. "I reacted to the threat that the ODS was beginning to recede from its original ideas and, in some cases, even began to discredit them. It became clearer and clearer that instead of defending constitutive ideas, something else was happening. The ODS was becoming a party of political calculus."

Topolánek, who constantly clashed with Klaus during his time as prime minister and ODS chairman, saw his government collapse during the Czech Republic's EU presidency in 2009, a downfall that many say was at least partially engineered by Klaus. The president also later helped Nečas succeed Topolánek as party leader, a move he said was necessary for the future health of the party. It has been rumored Klaus, 69, is already considering a return as ODS chairman when his presidential term expires in 2013.

"I'm now starting to believe that the ODS is no longer staggering, as it was for many years," he said. "The new party leadership, led by Petr Nečas, means change. But I know it won't be easy for him. The shift that took place was too big."

- Filip Šenk contributed to this report.

Jack Buehrer can be reached at
jbuehrer@praguepost.com