CZECH REPUBLIC: Young Democracy Shows Its Maturity As Klaus Falls

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis David Rocks

PRAGUE, Dec 1 1997 (IPS) - With the velvet of Prague’s revolution already frayed by economic malaise and deep public discontent, a quick rip of political scandal was all it took to tear the government apart.

Once the darling of Western artists, politicians and investment bankers, the Czech Republic has over the last year or two lost much of its sheen: Political infighting, an economic downturn and murky financial markets all served to rough up the country’s

once-lustrous image.

So the weekend crisis that brought down the government of prime minister Vaclav Klaus fit the pattern, even if its swiftness was a bit surprising.

Klaus — the region’s longest-serving leader and the only prime minister the Czech Republic has ever had — resigned from office Sunday in the wake of revelations that his party maintained an illegal bank account in Switzerland and had received a campaig n donation of some 225,000 dollars from a businessman buying a state-owned steel mill.

“This is a country like any other,” laments Miroslav Singer, chief economist with the Prague brokerage Expandia Finance. “But at least they couldn’t get away with this campaign finance deal. In this respect we’re not so bad.”

While Klaus is out of office, though, he’s not going down without a fight. After meeting with Klaus and other leaders Sunday, president Vaclav Havel announced that the group had failed to come to any agreement and that a decision on a new government will wait until after a national congress of Klaus’ Civic Democratic Party, scheduled for mid-December.

Until that time, Klaus will continue to lead the country as caretaker prime minister, although he rejected the possibility of serving in the new government. But he has indicated he will fight to retain his post as chairman of the party he founded.

And that can only spell trouble for the already-troubled Czech economy. Even before the scandal, the Czech Republic had lost its lustre as the shining economic star of central Europe.

A currency crisis in May sent the crown plunging and brought on a downturn. The growing scandal last week dragged both the currency and markets down, and on Monday the Prague Stock Exchange dropped a further 4.3 percent.

Even after the party congress, it is unclear whether a strong government can be formed. One factor that has kept Klaus in office so long is the lack of any acceptable alternative — a problem that the country is likely to run up against in coming weeks a s leaders struggle to find a replacement.

Top candidates for prime minister include Josef Lux, deputy premier and head of the centrist Christian Democrats; Ivan Pilip, the 34-year-old finance minister who is currently in poor standing with Klaus, as he helped bring about the crisis by calling fo r the prime minister’s resignation; and possibly Josef Tosovsky, the unaffiliated central bank governor who might be called upon to lead a non-partisan “government of experts.”

None of those men enjoys particularly widespread support, but whatever government is cobbled together is likely to be backed by the same three-party coalition that supported Klaus’ administration.

And with only 100 seats in the 200-seat Parliament, the three parties will have to depend on the support of at least one opposition deputy to form a government.

Already before the crisis erupted, polls indicated that the Social Democrats could easily beat Klaus’ Civic Democratic Party in new elections.

Now, although no vote is scheduled for another two years, Social Democratic leaders are stepping up the pressure for early elections, which means that the political uncertainty could last months rather than weeks.

On the positive side, many observers applaud the country’s handling of its deepest political crisis since the Czech Republic emerged from partitioned Czechoslovakia five years ago.

People have followed the events closely but calmly, as newspapers put out special Sunday editions to cover the rapidly changing developments and radio and television stations have interrupted regular programming with round-the-clock updates.

And while Klaus and others have been quick to blame the press for fomenting a witch-hunt attitude that brought down the government and sullied the country’s reputation abroad, independent observers praise Czech journalists for pursuing the campaign finan ce story with such vigour.

“This is almost a final exam in democracy that the Czech media have passed,” said political analyst Jiri Pehe.

“What we’ve seen is democracy at work. You have something that is illegal or unethical, and you have forces that have been able to identify it and bring the government down and set in motion the regeneration process — that’s very important.”