DeutscheWelle, 26 October 2013
The Social
Democrats appear to have won elections in the Czech Republic as voters angered
by years of right-wing graft and austerity veered left. The CSSD are poised to
form a minority government.
With nearly
100 percent of votes counted, the CSSD scored 20.5 percent, Action for
Alienated Citizens (ANO: Czech for "yes") won 18.7, and the Communist
Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) lagged behind with 15. Likely new premier
Bohuslav Sobotka had hinted before polls closed that he could form a minority
government with the tacit support of the Communists.
"The
result may not be what we imagined but it's the highest score of all
parties," 42-year-old Social Democrat leader Sobotka told reporters in
Prague after the election, declaring himself "ready to start talks"
on a coalition with all parties in parliament.
The election ends seven years of scandal-tainted right-wing rule. Former Finance
Minister Sobotka plans to introduce new taxes on banks, utilities and wealth to
pay for social programs.
'Better
off'
Andrej
Babis said his ANO would not back any deal with the Social Democrats. Babis
reinvented US President Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" campaign slogan,
promising Czechs "Yes, We'll Be Better Off". Babis claims his
billions make him immune to bribery and has wooed voters with vows of squeaky
clean politics.
"We
won't support a Cabinet comprising the CSSD," said the Slovak-born media
magnate Babis.
Winning
parties often woo smaller factions or independent members of parliament to form
coalition governments. Babis, the Czech Republic's second-wealthiest man, said
that, no matter what the CSSD managed to cobble together, his party would
prefer to stay in the opposition.
"We'll
be terribly glad to prevent the rise of left-wingers backed by
Communists," said the 59-year-old, himself a former Communist.
An elective
backlash
Right-wing
Prime Minister Petr Necas gave up his post in June amid an affair over
surveillance and bribery. His Civil Democrats won 8 percent Saturday. The
allied right-wing Top 09 also fared poorly Saturday, but took about 12 percent.
Both
parties will remain in parliament. Voters had already swung left in January,
electing former Communist Milos Zeman as president after a decade under the
right-wing euroskeptic Vaclav Klaus.
Polls
opened Friday afternoon and closed 24 hours later on Saturday. Unlike other EU
countries, predictions via exit polls were not expected. The 200 seats in the
Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, were contested by nearly 5,900
candidates. Voter turnout topped 59 percent.
The Czech
Republic, home to 10.5 million people and an EU member, has existed since its
1993 Velvet Divorce from Slovakia. That followed the collapse of communism and
four decades of totalitarian rule in the former Czechoslovakia, which ended in
1989's Velvet Revolution.
mkg/rc (Reuters, AFP)
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