Prague, Jan 27 (CTK) – The Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) are negotiating with the Mayors and Independents (STAN) movement about a joint election grouping whose list of candidates would comprise politicians of both parties, KDU-CSL leader Pavel Belobradek writes in a letter to his party colleagues.
The negotiations are still open and it may happen that the KDU-CSL and the STAN will run separately in the autumn general election, Belobradek writes in the letter that is available to CTK.
The cooperation is an opportunity to establish “a third power” in Czech politics, a power that is needed after the fall of the right wing, he writes.
Belobradek rules out any cooperation with the right-wing TOP 09 and Civic Democrats (ODS).
After their joint government fell in 2013, TOP 09 and the ODS ended up in the opposition. Their popularity is rather low and TOP 09 may have problems to defend its position in parliament.
In the general election in 2010 and 2013, STAN politicians ran for TOP 09. The KDU-CSL is the junior partner in the coalition government of the two parties that dominate the political scene, the Social Democrats (CSSD) and the ANO movement.
The negotiations between the KDU-CSL and STAN started in December and they may be completed at the end of March when the national conferences of both parties will be held. A possible agreement would have to be confirmed by the conferences.
Belobradek writes that there are several possibilities of the cooperation.
Apart from the establishment of an election party, STAN politicians may run on the KDU-CSL lists of candidates. However, STAN is against this because its position would not be equal to that of the KDU-CSL, Belobradek writes.
This was one of the reasons why STAN ended its alliance with TOP 09 at the end of last year.
Belobradek ruled out the possibility that the KDU-CSL would merge with any other party.
A formation of a coalition of the KDU-CSL and the STAN is ruled out as well because such a coalition would have to win at least 10-percent of the vote to enter the Chamber of Deputies, he writes.
Parties running in the general election need to cross the 5-percent threshold to gain seats in the lower house of Czech parliament, but if more parties form a coalition, the threshold is multiplied according to their number – a coalition of three groupings must win 15 percent, for example.
Belobradek writes that if the joint election project is agreed on, KDU-CSL politicians will not represent half of the candidates on each list and the STAN the other half, but the parties will be represented according to their position in the given region.
“The STAN movement is strong in regions in which the KDU-CSL is weak, and vice versa,” Belobradek writes.
In the autumn regional elections, STAN won more than 20 percent of the vote in the Liberec Region and Central Bohemia, while the Christian Democrats are traditionally stronger in Moravian regions, the eastern part of the country.
Belobradek writes that the KDU-CSL is not going to cooperate with the STAN at any cost.
“We do not want to accept conditions that could harm the KDU-CSL in the long term,” he says in the letter.
Belobradek writes that the party will not give up its election programme and only wants to win more voters for its values. One of the conditions will be that STAN lawmakers do not vote at variance with the ethical values of the Christian Democrats, he adds.
