Právo: Party leaders must first revive Czechs' interest in politics

Prague, Oct 16 (CTK) - The political parties' key future task will be to revive the Czechs' interest in politics and to strengthen trust in the parties' activities, Lukas Jelinek writes in Pravo about the recent regional and Senate elections yesterday.

The polls brought a success to the Communists (KSCM) who won in two regions, beating the Social Democrats (CSSD) who have controlled them since 2008 when they gained power in all 13 regions. In this elections, the CSSD lost four regions - two to the Communists, one to the senior government Civic Democrats (ODS) and one to the Mayors for the Liberec Region movement.

The Communists also won more votes in other regions than four years ago.

Jelinek writes that the Communists' (KSCM) supporters play a crucial role among the few active people who are still interested in politics and are ready to go to the polls.

He writes that if the votes cast for the Communists were common protest votes, the far-right Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS) and other extremists would have also rejoiced.

But citizens supported the pragmatic Communists who have already become a part of the establishment on the regional level at least, Jelinek writes.

Voters have decided not to support any more the parties cutting public services, introducing fees for health care and education and lavishly compensating churches, Jelinek writes.

He says new goals will have to be agreed on mainly by the CSSD and the KSCM.

Jelinek writes that the right-wing parties have been repudiated. Prime Minister and ODS chairman Petr Necas claims that he was not surprised by the defeat because citizens tend to assess the national government in the regional elections held halfway through the government's term.

He said he is accountable in the general election while now responsibility rests with the regional lists of candidates' leaders, Jelinek writes.

He says this is strange because the ODS decorated the whole country with billboards featuring precisely Necas, Miroslava Nemcova, ODS first deputy chairwoman and Chamber of Deputies head, and Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS).

Petr Gazdik, head of the government TOP 09/STAN deputy group, spoke about declining morals and devastation from the times of the Communist regime when reacting to the elections result.

Did he want to say that the dubious purchase of the CASA planes at the time when Vlasta Parkanova (TOP 09) was defence minister and that the suspicious division of public tenders at the Labour and Social Affairs under minister Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09) was due to the surviving ill spirit of Communism? Jelinek asks.

He writes that the Czech right has paid dearly for these two scandals together with the scandals of the ODS and the rift between ODS lawmakers.

An even greater role was evidently played by people's social situation and the arrogant behaviour of Necas's government towards the opposition, social partners and the public, Jelinek writes.

The first election analysis shows that the right has been unable to mobilise if only one third of its potential supporters, so big is their disenchantment, Jelinek writes.

He says the same applies to the CSSD. Almost two thirds of its lukewarm followers stayed at home while the KSCM and Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) with a traditionally loyal voter core brought more than a half of their supporters to the polls.

The CSSD and KSCM that will control the Senate and that will direct a crushing majority of regions will have a crucial influence on whether people's interest in politics will be revived and their trust in parties' activities will be strengthened.

If they fail, they will share the sad fate of the ODS and TOP 09 which will result in the erosion of democracy as a way of governance, Jelinek writes.