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DE RUEHPG #0146/01 0451359
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FM AMEMBASSY PRAGUE
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INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 000146 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NCE EFICHTE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL EZ
SUBJECT: CZECH GREENS: PROMOTION TO TOP LEVEL OF NATIONAL 
POLITICS MEANS COMPROMISES, BUT ALSO LASTING GAINS 
 
REF: PRAGUE 122 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY. The Czech Green Party, in government for the 
first time ever, is exercising an influence far beyond its 3% 
share in parliament as it rapidly evolves from a coffee house 
movement to a mainstream political party. The party, which is 
wrestling with the tensions between its historic activist 
ideals and the real life demands of political compromise, 
will hold its annual party congress February 17-18. Party 
Chairman Martin Bursik, who has so far kept the party 
together in spite of both internal debates and fundamental 
policy differences between the Greens and their coalition 
partners, is expected to be confirmed as party leader for 
another year. The positions taken at the Congress, on issues 
ranging from missile defense to ethics in government and 
European integration, will also tell us something about the 
direction the party, now the nation's fastest growing 
political grouping, plans to take over the next year. END 
SUMMARY 
 
¶2. (U) In last June's general election, the Green Party won 
slightly more than 6% of the vote nationwide and received, 
because of the modified D'hondt system of proportional 
representation, just 6 of the 200 seats in parliament. 
Chairman Martin Bursik said soon after the election that the 
party would not surrender its principles and join a coalition 
"at any cost" just to get a share of power. But the Greens 
eventually agreed to join the coalition with Prime Minister 
Topolanek's Civic Democrats (ODS) and now find themselves 
governing with two partners they have many disagreements 
with. The upcoming Congress will be the first demonstration 
of just how much support the rank and file are still prepared 
to give Bursik, and whether complaints that he has gone too 
far on some important issues are isolated or serious enough 
to force Bursik back to traditional Green positions. 
 
PARTY'S GROWING INFLUENCE IN DIVIDED COALITION 
 
¶3. (U) As recently as late 2006, any observer would have 
predicted that the Christian Democrats, an established 
fixture on the political scene, would have had significantly 
greater influence than the Greens in a three-way coalition 
with ODS. But due to the fact that the Christian Democrats 
are, at least temporarily, preoccupied with the indictment on 
a bribery charge of the party Chairman, Jiri Cunek (Reftel), 
the Green Party has been able to push forward more of its own 
agenda, thereby exercising an influence far beyond its size. 
For example, the cabinet's agenda on February 5 had 27 items 
on it. Sixteen of those had been submitted by ministers from 
the Green Party. KDU-CSL, on the other hand, submitted only 
three of the items. 
 
¶4. (U) Since the Greens have positions on several issues that 
differ fundamentally from the positions of its coalition 
partners, it is still unclear just how much influence they 
can have. Will the Greens stick to their long-held positions 
and demand their partners show flexibility or will the Greens 
have to accommodate their partners and show flexibility 
themselves? The coalition is still in its early days, but so 
far it seems that the Greens are getting their way on some 
issues by showing flexibility on others. For example, the 
Greens have always stood for transparency and honesty in 
government. Yet the current minority government was only able 
to pass its vote of confidence after dealing privately with 
two renegades from the opposition Social Democrats. In 
addition, the coalition's number two, Principal Deputy Prime 
Minister Jiri Cunek, was indicted February 9 on a charge of 
accepting a bribe. Bursik's reaction was to say that if a 
member of the Greens were in a similar position, he would ask 
them to step down.  But he has pointedly not called for Cunek 
to resign. The Greens, who have actively campaigned on behalf 
of minority rights, also dislike Cunek because he forcefully 
evicted Roma families from the center of the town of which he 
was once Mayor. Green Minister without Portfolio Dzamila 
Stehlikova, in office only since the start of the year, has 
made a promising start on the issue of Roma rights. But 
neither coalition partner has come forward with much in the 
way of support and realists, pointing out that there are very 
few votes to be won in defending Roma, wonder how much will 
be achieved in the end. 
 
¶5. (U) Another issue that is forcing the party to bend its 
principles is the question of European integration. The 
Greens are strong proponents of multilateral cooperation 
across Europe. But the coalition's senior partner, the Civic 
Democrats, are Eurosceptics. Prime Minister Topolanek has 
just appointed MEP Jan Zahradil (ODS) to lead talks on the EU 
constitution. Zahradil and Bursik clashed last month when 
Zahradil, following his own party's position, rejected a 
 
PRAGUE 00000146  002 OF 002 
 
 
German proposal to revive the previously tabled constitution 
and Bursik argued that the Czech government hasn't yet even 
formulated its policy on the issue. 
 
¶6. (SBU) A third issue forcing party leaders to show 
flexibility is the proposal to construct a U.S. radar base on 
Czech soil. ODS and KDU-CSL are strong supporters of the 
proposal. But many of the Green Party's grass roots 
supporters have complained that Foreign Minister Karel 
Schwarzenberg, selected by the Greens, has been too vocal in 
his support of the base. On February 7, 2007, Matej 
Stropnicky, one of the party's 54 member party council, sent 
a letter to party leaders, signed by more than 20 other 
members of the council, saying Schwarzenberg was undoubtedly 
a good man, but that his foreign policy conflicts with the 
party's program. Stropnicky has also said that he will 
introduce a resolution at the party congress calling for the 
party to support a referendum on the issue. But Ondrej Liska, 
the young Chairman of parliament's EU Affairs Committee, 
argues that calls for a referendum are pointless because any 
bill authorizing such a referendum would never get past the 
ODS-dominated Senate and lower house. On a February 11 
television talk show, Bursik predicted that the party 
congress would insist that the Greens press the coalition 
government to get a "guarantee" from the U.S. that the 
proposed missile defense system would one day be brought 
under NATO operation and command. Meanwhile, Liska is 
scheduled to go to the U.S. February 25 to March 1 to discuss 
missile defense with American counterparts. Liska has, in the 
past, told the Embassy on several occasions that he does not 
expect to support the proposal for a U.S. radar base, but now 
seems to be keeping the door open until more details are 
known about the base and its possible integration into a NATO 
defense system. 
 
BURSIK STRAYING FROM ACTIVIST BASE? 
 
¶7. (U) A number of prominent Greens and media commentators 
have noticed that Bursik has gone back on stands taken 
earlier. One party member, former Human Rights Commissioner, 
anti-Communist dissident and professional gadfly Petr Uhl, 
quit the party in January, 2007, stating in an open letter to 
the party that the current government is the product of 
political corruption, based on fraud. He added the Greens' 
participation in the coalition conflicts with the party's 
basic principles of openness, transparency, and political 
honesty. Uhl also took the party's leadership to task for 
supporting U.S. foreign policy and not promoting a referendum 
on the missile base proposal, a position that had been 
adopted earlier by the party council. 
 
¶8. (U) A February 12 editorial in the national daily Pravo 
made similar points, arguing that Bursik has zigzagged on the 
referendum issue and modified his stance on Missile Defense 
from firmly opposing anything that wasn't part of an existing 
NATO system to possibly accepting a facility that would be 
linked to a NATO system sometime in the future. (The 
Ambassador will meet with Bursik February 15 to discuss his 
positions, to be reported Septel). 
 
PARTY'S GROWING STRENGTH 
 
¶9.  (SBU) COMMENT. The Green Party has been polling as high 
as 13% and regularly above 10%, usually the 4th strongest 
party, just behind the Communists, which have roughly 75,000 
members. At the time of last June's elections, the Greens had 
slightly more than 500 members but now claim nearly 3,000. 
The growing popularity of the party across a broad range of 
the general public coincides with the growing criticisms by 
the party's initial activist base. Bursik, who will run 
unopposed for post of Party Chairman at this weekend's 
Congress, has regularly demonstrated good political skills. 
He might lose a few zealots along the way, but it looks as 
though he is building the party into a lasting and 
influential force with a much broader and more stable base. 
Such a development will mean compromises on some issues that 
matter to the U.S. such as transparency and minority rights. 
But it could also be to America's benefit if it means a more 
moderate stance with regard to a possible U.S. radar base in 
the Czech Republic. 
GRABER