Communists revel in their new-found influence
One of the most significant aspects of this presidential election was the manner in which it boosted the position of the communist party. Having suffered years of enforced isolation by Vaclav Havel's refusal to meet or deal with them during his thirteen years in office, the communists made it perfectly clear to the future head of state that their support would not come cheap. Although both presidential candidates rejected speculation regarding a "behind the scenes" deal, political analysts find it hard to believe that the communists will not demand their pound of flesh. Jiri Pehe teaches politics at the New York University in Prague .
In helping Vaclav Klaus to win the presidency the communists hit two birds with one stone - they made sure that the future head of state would treat them with respect and they dealt a blow to the already weakened Social Democrats.
Many political analysts now fear that if the senior governing party falls prey to infighting it will be the communists who will be the strongest party left of centre. Vladimira Dvorakova, from the Prague School of Economics, argues that while the communists gained new ground - they betrayed their values and their support of a right wing conservative politician could eventually backfire.
"I think this /support for Vaclav Klaus/ can be a problem for the communist party, because in a sense they legitimized Klaus' policies from the beginning of the 90s which they criticized all the time in the past. And now suddenly they support him. They have jeopardized their position, their values and this can backfire on them. It can have consequences within the party."
Nevertheless, the communists are now in a position to decide important matters and as the Social Democrats' position weakens the communists may eventually become the strongest party left of centre...
"I am not so sure they will gain much by this vote because, as I said, it will have an adverse impact on the party itself. I am not so concerned about the possibility of their influence growing. Vaclav Havel excluded the communists from important meetings all along and now Vaclav Klaus has promised to communicate with the communist party. This means that they will become part of the establishment. And if a party is part of "the establishment" it tends to be less radical. This is a classical situation in any country. Whenever a marginalized party has become part of the establishment it has ceased to be as radical as in the past. As a result of this step the communists will loose some of their protest votes and I do not believe that we will see a growth of the communist party."
