ČSSD head wants Paroubek to stay

Prague, Aug 4 (CTK) - Czech Social Democrat (opposition CSSD) chairman Bohuslav Sobotka said he wants to try to persuade the party's previous leader Jiri Paroubek not to leave the CSSD in reaction to Paroubek's statement, released on Thursday, that he has been forming a new centre-left party.

Sobotka said he asked Paroubek to meet him. He believes that he may make Paroubek change his mind.

"I will ask him not to take such a step," Sobotka said about the possible departure of his predecessor.

Paroubek told yesterday's daily Lidove noviny (LN) that he would present his new party in about eight weeks.

However, he seems to have used his possible departure as a sort of warning.

He said he would present his new party in the autumn at the latest "if they (the current CSSD leaders) keep going on in the same way."

Paroubek has been sharply criticising the current leadership for several months - in fact, since the general election in May 2010.

The Social Democrats won the last year's general election but they ended up in opposition since they did not find any partner to form a government with.

Many observers and some CSSD politicians said this failure was due to Paroubek's aggressive political style. Paroubek stepped down as the party's head immediately after the elections.

Central Bohemian governor David Rath (CSSD) said he, too, would try to persuade Paroubek, who headed the CSSD in 2006-2010 and prime minister in 2005-2006, to stay a member of the party.

Rath said Paroubek would challenge the results of his 20-year work in the CSSD if he left it. It would be a mistake if the party split, he added.

CSSD first deputy chairman Michal Hasek said Paroubek has no programme or factual reasons to leave. "I regret that Paroubek does not walk the same path as the new leadership (of the Social Democrats)," Hasek said.

Hasek said he believes negotiations with Paroubek were still possible.

CSSD deputy chairwoman Marie Benesova said there is no sense in persuading Paroubek. "Let him do what he wants to do," she said.

Sobotka said earlier Paroubek should resign on his mandate of a lower house deputy if he leaves the party.

But Rath believes Paroubek has the right to keep the deputy's mandate because he won it as the party's leader, not as an unknown member, and because he received a high number of preferential votes in the elections.

Paroubek was indicating for some time that he would leave the Social Democrats. His collaborators said earlier he may join the marginal Czech National Social Party (CSNS 2005) or found a new party.

"A new centre-left party with principal and resolute politics will force the CSSD not to become too rightist," Paroubek wrote on his website www.vasevec.cz.

Paroubek has no post in the CSSD leadership, he is not a member of the party's shadow government and he does not communicate with most of his former colleagues.

The CSSD leadership fears that Paroubek might won over some of the Social Democrat voters.

Jan Hezmann, expert on opinion polls, told LN that this fear is substantiated.

"The biggest chance on the left-wing is somewhere between the CSSD and the Communist Party (KSCM). There certainly are some five to seven percent of the vote that may be won," Herzmann said.

The Social Democrats have experience with a former leader who turned against their party. Milos Zeman, prime minister in 1998-2002, left the CSSD in 2007 and formed the Party of Citizens' Rights (SPO). The SPO failed to enter parliament last year yet it won over 4 percent of the vote.

CSSD senator Vladimir Dryml, a supporter of Paroubek, told LN that the Social Democrats could have played a far more important role in parliament if Zeman had not stolen these votes from them.