Filip: Communists are compatible

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 Czechoslovak 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 many of their leftist counterparts across Europe, they have never removed the word "communist" from their name.

But as the current center-right governing coalition of the Civic Democratic (ODS), TOP 09 and Public Affairs (VV) parties continues to lose the faith of the public, left-wing parties, including the KSČM, have begun to see increased support among would-be voters.

Filip met The Prague Post at his modest office at KSČM headquarters on a rainy morning just one week after the latest Factum Invenium poll showed KSČM had nearly pulled even with the ODS in terms of public support and had surpassed TOP 09 and VV. The left-leaning opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD) were the most popular party.

While Filip said he was encouraged by the poll numbers, he said the party is still unlikely to find itself in the government anytime 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 past 20 years trying to forget.

The Prague Post: Polls are starting to show that the voters are moving farther to the left. Do you have a sense of what is pushing them that way?

Vojtěch Filip: Voters were already on the left in 2010, but the political parties that eventually created the current government coalition betrayed 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: If you look at poll numbers, the Communist Party has gained a lot of support since the April government crisis. Is the 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 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: Do you foresee a situation in which the KSČM is ever part of a ruling coalition again?

VF: That isn't up to us. It depends on whoever wins future elections. But we wouldn't join a coalition just to be in power. In my view, the ČSSD would never consider joining up with us, especially if the Green Party and the Christian Democrats ever returned to Parliament. But we aren't afraid of government responsibility. We have proved on the municipal and regional levels that we are capable of cooperation.

TPP: If that's true, why do the ODS and your many other critics argue that the KSČM has not evolved since the fall of the communist regime and that your party is not compatible with a modern democratic system?

VF: When these other parties make these comments about the KSČM, they are always pointing to the past. At the same time, people who are now part of the ODS - the ČSSD, TOP 09 or VV - they're much more 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 would give even more rights than those now in power. Over the past 20 years, they have not given people a chance for a 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 it is incompatible with governance in EU?

TPP: But is the current KSČM capable of promoting its core beliefs while still recognizing that you are still just one party among others observing the tenants of democracy?

VF: This question is beyond reality. Our party is for the equality of ownership rights, which is a different principle from the past. Of course, we are not so stupid as to repeat the mistakes that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia made for so long that rid her of authority in the society.

TPP: So, then, 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 at 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 healthcare system worse? 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 citizens are worse off 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 is enjoying more rights than before. But then there is a large - very wide - group that is not.

Read the entire interview with Vojtěch Filip at praguepost.com/blogs.

Jack Buehrer can be reached at
jbuehrer@praguepost.com