Two largest parties willing to cooperate on budget during crisis
In view of the continuing economic crisis the Czech Republic’s two largest parties, and often bitter rivals, the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats have expressed a willingness to cooperate on next year’s budget. Both indicated this week the need to find a consensus, after interim Finance Minister Eduard Janota announced that if strong measures weren’t taken to cut spending and raise revenues, the country would face a ballooning deficit of 230 billion crowns. Is this sudden show of goodwill for real and can it work?
“First I would say that if it is a serious attempt to find a solution on the budget that is very, very positive. The country is in crisis, the world is in crisis. The ability to find some consensus will be very, very important for financial stability. Can such a consensus be reached? There I am less certain. After all, we are ahead of early elections and some of the compromises that need to be taken would be very unpopular.”
Some of the ideas that have been floated by the interim finance minister include raising the VAT – but the suggestion did not meet with great enthusiasm among the political parties. Do you think there are other measures that can be agreed on, such as cutting spending at individual ministries?
“Raising the VAT affects all social groups so that is something that is very difficult to approve ahead of the election. But I think it will be possible to find agreement in some areas. First, though, they have to find a consensus on the deficit itself. With direct involvement by both of the largest parties it would probably be easier to find an overall agreement.”
The Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats, on the other hand, define their positions on all other fronts very sharply and their campaigns are very aggressive, so that can make it confusing for the voter to see the difference between reality and the campaign…
“Yes and I think this is a very important point you’ve mentioned: in any country campaigns get aggressive and you can find dirty tricks. But here there is often an atmosphere, sometimes aided by the media, that the other party is ‘the enemy’. Not a challenger, someone you compete against for political power, but ‘the enemy’. You know, all these campaigns - that suggest that if this or that party wins it will be a ‘national tragedy - are very, very dangerous. These are strategies that polarises society, fuel political violence, and make it hard for some people to view the contenders as true democratic parties.”
