Cerhenice, Central Bohemia, June 26 (CTK) – The local branch of the senior ruling Czech Social Democrats (CSSD) in Cerhenice approved the admission of former CSSD chairman and ex-PM Jiri Paroubek to the party despite the Prague organisation’s rejection, Cerhenice branch head Marek Semerad has told CTK.
The branch in Cerhenice town will send its resolution to the Prague CSSD’s bodies that should re-open the matter again, Semerad, mayor of Cerhenice, said.
Paroubek attended today’s meeting of some 50 out of the 89 branch members.
“We have admitted Mr Paroubek as a member and launched the process of his entry,” Semerad said.
Under the party rules, Paroubek’s original party organisation in Prague must give a go-ahead to his return, along with the respective district and regional executive committees.
The Prague CSSD’s executive committee rejected his return a couple of days ago.
Semerad said it should deal with the issue again.
Paroubek, 64, Paroubek 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 the opposition, he left the post of party leader.left the CSSD in 2011 and founded the National Socialists-21st Century Left (LEV 21). However, LEV 21 did not succeed in any election and Paroubek withdrew from politics in 2014.
