Tales from Suburban Bohemia: Czech Politics UPDATE
This post originally appeared on Stumpy Moose on 27 June, 2002, and was migrated to PraguePig.com on 29 December, 2019.
This is an update to my earlier column, Czech Politics.
My hunch was wrong. Vaclav Klaus didn’t get back into power at the 2002 Czech elections.
Instead, the Social Democrats, led by new leader Vladimir Spidla, won the largest share of the vote and are negotiating with the Coalition to form the new government. (I’m hoping that the name of the new grouping is among the topics they’re discussing. Are they really going to call it the Social Democrat-Coalition coalition?)
The big surprise at this election was the Communists’ strong showing. They got 18.5 percent of the vote.
This has alarmed some people, but I’d rather have the Communists get the protest vote than the Nazis.
Unless the Communists improve on their showing at the next election I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.
I worked on the night of the election, interviewing drunks at a pub for a special election edition of The Prague Post. Much to my displeasure, this meant missing the Floor Master III breakdancing contest, which took place on the same night, so I never got to see the Master Suck Boys in action.
The things I do for democracy…
Sam Beckwith
Internet Celebrity
