Prague, Nov 9 (CTK) – The Czech Social Democrat (CSSD) branch in Prague 5 has not supported the return of former CSSD chairman and ex-PM Jiri Paroubek to the party, the server iDNES.cz has reported.
Paroubek needs its consent since according to the party’s statutes, the local organisation of which he was a member in the past must agree with his return.
The CSSD local branch in Cerhenice, Central Bohemia, in which Paroubek handed in his application for membership, approved his admission in June and so did the Prague CSSD’s regional executive committee.
The party’s Central Bohemian regional organisation was yet to assess his admission in the days to come.
“The CSSD Prague 5 district executive committee has not supported the entry of Jiri Paroubek into the party,” committee deputy chairman Karel Klima told the server after the meeting.
Paroubek refused to comment on the decision for the server.
“I will keep negotiating about the matter,” he only told iDNES.cz.
Paroubek, 65, entered the renewed CSSD after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. In the early 1990s, he became its central secretary and ran for the post of party leader against current President Milos Zeman in 1993, but failed. He was prime minister in 2005-06 and CSSD leader in 2006-2010.
Immediately after the 2010 elections that the Social Democrats won only narrowly and ended up in opposition, Paroubek resigned as the party leader. He left the CSSD in 2011 and founded the National Socialists-21st Century Left (LEV 21). However, the party did not succeed in any election and Paroubek withdrew from politics in 2014. He decided to focus on his family, business and public beneficial work.
The CSSD, senior member of the outgoing coalition government with ANO and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), suffered a fiasco in the recent general election. It gained mere 7.3 percent of the vote, compared to 20.5 percent four years ago, and its group shrank from 50 to 15 members in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.
