VZCZCXRO9880
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DE RUEHPG #0535/01 1381710
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181710Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY PRAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7363
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 000535 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL EZ
SUBJECT: CZECH ELECTIONS - THE FADING STIGMA OF COMMUNIST 
TIES 
 
REF: A. PRAGUE 284 
     ¶B. PRAGUE 427 
     ¶C. PRAGUE 482 
     ¶D. PRAGUE 516 
 
PRAGUE 00000535  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  The stigma of having some form of 
association with either the pre-1989 Communist Party of 
Czechoslovakia, or with its post-1989 successor, seems to be 
fading. A growing number of Czechs, though still in the 
minority, do not seem to mind the Communist Party. One major 
turning point came when Vaclav Klaus was elected president in 
2003 with the help of the previously shunned Communist Party. 
During the four-year term of the current government, which 
will end after the June 2-3 general elections, Communists 
were appointed to several official positions that would have 
been impossible in earlier years. In addition, more 
ex-Communists are running in this election than four years 
ago, particularly on the ticket of the ruling Social 
Democrats (CSSD). The Communist party also has 33 
non-party-members, many of them in their twenties and 
thirties, on its ticket for the upcoming election, showing 
its ability to attract new blood and survive as more than a 
party of protest voters. One of the anomalies of the Czech 
political system is that 15-20% of the population supports a 
party that  has been unable to participate in government at 
the national level. If the current trend continues, and signs 
are that it probably will, it is only a matter of time before 
this party, with its generally anti-American views, gets a 
role on the national political stage. END SUMMARY 
 
¶2. (U) The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), the 
successor party to the pre-1989 Communist Party of 
Czechoslovakia, has generally been shunned by Czech 
mainstream parties, despite being one of the largest in the 
parliament.  KSCM leaders have openly stated that their goal 
is to gain full legitimacy by the 2010 elections, i.e., be 
accepted as a possible coalition partner. Over the past four 
years the party passed several milestones on the way to that 
goal. The most prominent of these was the appointment of 
Vojtech Filip to the position of Vice-President of 
parliament,s lower house after the 2002 elections, in which 
the Communists came third with 18.5% of the vote.  The lower 
house, the Chamber of Deputies, has a president and five 
vice-presidents, who are appointed based on the share of the 
votes each party receives. In the past, the Communists were 
not given one of vice-presidents slots even though they came 
in third in the 1996 elections and the 1998 elections, as 
they did in 2002. In the local elections held in the fall of 
2002, communists were elected to municipal coalitions in 
several cities in the north and east of the country, where 
they have their traditional strongholds. Although the great 
majority of local councilors, more than 50,000, are 
non-partisan, the Communists have more local officials than 
any other party. They have 3,671, compared to 2,999 for the 
Civic Democrats (ODS) and 1,771 for the Social Democrats 
(CSSD). The 2002 local elections also saw the first communist 
mayor elected to one of the major cities, in this case, 
Karvina. In the June 2004 elections to the European 
Parliament, the Communist Party came in second and took six 
of the 24 Czech seats. 
 
¶3. (U) Beginning in 2005, after Prime Minister Paroubek came 
to power, several Communists were appointed to state-run 
boards.  In October 2005, Ludmila Brynchova was appointed to 
the Supreme Audit Office, the Czech equivalent of the GAO. In 
December 2005, Petr Brany became the first Communist 
representative on the National Property Fund.  In March 2006, 
Miroslava Mouckava, then-editor of the Communist Party 
publication, Halo Noviny, became a member of the Advisory 
Board for the Czech Press Agency (CTK). In March 2006, 
Communist MP and shadow interior minister Zuzanna Rujbrova 
joined the supervisory board of the Czech Consolidation 
Agency, which handles debts incurred by the state in the 
past. These positions are fairly influential, without being 
terribly visible, and are seen as a way of easing the party 
back into power. 
 
¶4. (U) The daily newspaper Lidove Noviny ran an article on 
May 17 listing the number of candidates for the June 2-3 
election who were members of the Communist Party of 
Czechoslovakia before 1989. Not surprisingly, 95% of the 
candidates on the KSCM ticket were also members of the party 
before the fall of communism in 1989.  The percentage of 
pre-89 party members is the same as it was in the election 
four years ago. The figure for the Social Democrats is 40%, 
up from 32% four years ago. In 11 of the 14 electoral 
districts, CSSD has ex-communists at or near the top of the 
ticket, where they are almost certain to be elected. In Zlin, 
for example, ex-communists occupy the first three slots. 
 
PRAGUE 00000535  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶5. (U) It is also worth noting the number of relatively young 
people, many of them just entering politics, who are running 
as non-party members on the communist ticket. Nationwide, 
there are 33 non-party members running under the communist 
banner. The majority of these candidates are too far down the 
lists to be elected. However, in Southern Moravia, Dr. 
Vojtech Adam (55) is third on the list. In Hradec Kralove, 
current parliamentarian Vlastimil Dlab (54) and technician 
Alois Havrda (59), second and third on the list, stand 
reasonable chances of being elected.   In the Moravia-Silesia 
district, fully 1/3 of the candidates are non-party members 
and most of these are under 40. The group includes 
schoolteachers, housewives, local mayors, and students. 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT. In the early 1990s, attempts to ban the 
Communist party were rebuffed with the argument that it would 
wither away on it own accord. Today, more than sixteen years 
after the end of communist rule, the party shows no sign of 
doing so. Public opinion polls indicate the KSCM is likely to 
retain its position as the third largest party in the new 
Chamber of Deputies.  The few steps to put Communists into 
positions of authority, and the open cooperation between CSSD 
and KSCM in passing legislation over the past year, have not 
provoked a significant backlash.  That is not to say that 
there is no debate.  Numerous NGOs and many politicians from 
both the center-left and center-right make it a point of 
honor that they will not deal with the Communists; private 
campaigns exist to try to keep alive the memory of abuses by 
the pre-1989 regime.  But election campaigns based on 
anti-communist themes (this has been an element of campaigns 
by the center-right Civic Democrats and Christian Democrats) 
do not appear to have been particularly successful.  With 
KSCM occupying a large bloc of votes in the next parliament, 
we expect that, no matter what the composition of the next 
government, the stigma against dealing with the Communists 
will continue to erode, and many if not all of the mainstream 
parties will work with them in a more open manner.  This will 
likely mean more party representatives on regulatory bodies 
and in other positions of authority, and could see the KSCM 
achieve their goal of being accepted for formal participation 
in a government after 2010. 
 
¶7. (U) Note:  Septels will discuss further the questions 
raised in State 80072. 
CABANISS