Czechs rock politics in election slap for big parties (News Feature)

By Katerina Zachovalova May 30, 2010, 18:05 GMT

Prague - Czech movie star Ana Geislerova popped a bottle of champagne this weekend when Jiri Paroubek, the unpopular leader of one big Czech political party, announced his resignation after the country's general election.

'People realized that a lot is at stake and that we need a change,' she told the German Press Agency dpa.

Geislerova was among prominent Czechs who backed one of a half dozen grassroots movements urging people on the internet to voice their dissatisfaction with politics.

They scored an apparent success. Frustrated with corruption scandals and the bitter infighting of their political class, voters bashed the established parties and sent two new groupings to parliament.

'For Czech voters, this is a psychological boost,' said political scientist Jan Kubacek, who lectures at Prague's Charles University. 'They realized that they carry weight.'

The country's two largest parties, Paroubek's Social Democrats and their centre-right Civic Democratic rivals, each received just above 20 per cent of the vote, a steep decline from more than 30 per cent in the 2006 polls.

'We are very aware that we received a warning from the voters,' Civic Democratic leader Petr Necas told reporters on Saturday, while Paroubek called the public support for smaller newcomers 'a phenomenon of this election.'

Five prominent politicians announced their resignations in the wake of massive losses for the established parties.

Aside from the top Social Democrat Paroubek, they included Christian Democratic leader Cyril Svoboda, Greens leader Ondrej Liska and Prague mayor Pavel Bem, who has already given up his post of Civic Democratic head in the capital.

More than half of lawmakers are novices to the house, as just 86 of 145 legislators running for reelection managed to defend their posts, the Czech news agency CTK reported. Four years ago, 115 succeeded.

Some key party members lost through preferential voting in which voters circle up to four candidates whom they want to win a seat.

In perhaps the most prominent example, voters kicked out Civic Democratic vice-chairman and former interior minister Ivan Langer, tainted by one of the many corruption scandals of the past term.

The two new parties - the conservative TOP 09 led by the popular aristocrat Karel Schwarzenberg and the populist protest Public Matters grouping led by the charismatic television journalist Radek John - earned a combined force of 65 votes in the 200-seat lower house.

Now, they are likely to form a centre-right government with the weakened Civic Democrats.

After being ruled for years by weak governments relying on slim majorities, the Czech Republic is thus on a path towards a coalition with a solid backing of 118 seats that could have the strength to push through public sector reforms and spending cuts.

But the Czechs, who rallied for the change and punishment of the big parties, are not naive. Geislerova is cautious in her optimism. 'Some parties are so new that it is unclear what to expect from them,' she said.

Analysts agree with her. While the previous wobbly cabinets were blackmailed by individual lawmakers during important votes in the house, this one could be blackmailed by whole groupings, they said.

Ivan Baloun, 56, a professional driver, who gave his vote to one of the new parties out of disappointment with the established ones, was equally cautious. 'It does not matter if it is a Jack or a Joe. It will be all the same,' he said. 'But at least I feel that I did something.'

As Geislerova put it, 'the future is open' for Czechs.