Social Democrats meet to choose new party leader
The Czech Republic’s biggest opposition party, the left-of-centre Social Democratic Party, begins a two day congress on Friday which should elect a new leader. Former leader Jiří Paroubek stepped down after disappointing election results in May last year cast the party into the opposition. The two leading contenders are former finance minister and acting party chief, Bohuslav Sobotka, and the governor of Southern Moravia, Michal Hašek. Political analyst Jiří Pehe spoke with Jan Richter about the meeting in Brno and the biggest impact of the leadership election.
There are two major candidates for the post, the acting head Bohuslav Sobotka, and the governor of the South Moravian region, Michal Hašek. What are the differences between them and how will the party change if either of them is elected?
“Well, I think that the major difference between the two candidates rests on their approaches and ideas. I think that Sobotka is a bit more idealistic in that he is concerned about the future of social democracy, not only in the Czech Republic, although you could argue at that level they are both quite good and their answers to the questions from 14 intellectuals were quite impressive. What I think is the major distinguishing feature is the people that surround them. Hašek is surrounded by quite a lot of people with dubious pasts and connections, Sobotka is less so. I think that he also has some people around him who are not entirely good but I think that the number of people who have some clientalist networks behind them and are suspected of corruption in Hašek’s camp is much larger and that for me that is the main difference.”
“Well I definitely think that as far as opposition to the current government is concerned the Social Democratic Party would be better under Bohulsav Sobotka because Michal Hašek is a pragmatist who really wants to build bridges to various right-of-centre parties. I am not entirely sure he will be willing to pursue a real opposition politics. He says that the Social Democratic Party needs someone in the other camp to form coalitions with. Sobotka, I think, believes that the Social Democrats should be a tough opposition party and if that provides them with over 40 percent of support maybe they do not need any coalition parties or maybe just one smaller party.”
How likely is it that some third person could be elected the Social Democrat leader? According to some press reports there is a serious possibility that (Lubomír) Zaorálek, will be elected as party leader.
“Of course, it is possible there will be some deadlock. Both candidates have seven nominations from the regions. Although it seems on the surface that support is larger or stronger for Sobotka it could end in a deadlock. In that case a third candidate could emerge. Zaorálek is mentioned most frequently and in that case I do not think it would be that bad for the Social Democratic Party and would not be bad for the Sobotka camp simply because he is part of the Sobotka camp. It would be a victory for the Sobotka camp.
