Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia

Updated on Jan 11, 2024

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Leader Vojtěch Filip		Founded 1989

Preceded by Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Headquarters Politických vězňů 9, Prague Think tank Centrum strategických a teoretických studií KSČM Youth wing Communist Youth Union Young Communists

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech: Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy, KSČM) is a communist party in the Czech Republic. It has a membership of 42,994 (2016) and is a member party of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left bloc in the European Parliament.

Along with the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova it is one of only two former ruling parties in post-communist Central Eastern Europe which has not dropped the communist title from its name, although it changed its party program to suit laws adopted after 1989. For most of the first two decades after the Velvet Revolution, the party was politically isolated and accused of extremism, but it has moved closer to the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). After the 2012 regional elections, it began governing in coalition with the ČSSD in 10 regions. It has never been part of governing coalition in executive branch. Its youth organisation was banned from 2006 to 2010, and there have been calls from other parties to outlaw the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. Until 2013 it was the only political party in Czech Republic printing its own newspapers, called Haló noviny.

History

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia was formed in 1989 by the Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which decided to create a party for the territories of Bohemia and Moravia (including Czech Silesia), the areas that were to become the Czech Republic. The new party's organization was significantly more democratic and decentralized than the previous party and gave local district branches of the party significant autonomy.

In 1990, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, a federation of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and the Communist Party of Slovakia, was formed. Later, the Communist Party of Slovakia changed its name to the Party of the Democratic Left, and the federation broke up in 1992.

During the party's first congress, held in Olomouc in October 1990, the party's then-leader, Jiří Svoboda, attempted to reform the party into a democratic socialist one, proposing a democratic socialist program and changing the name to the transitional "Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia: Party of Democratic Socialism." Svoboda had to balance the criticisms of older conservative communists, who made up a majority of the party's members, with the demands of an increasingly large and moderate bloc of members, led primarily by a group of young KSČM parliamentarians called the Democratic Left, who demanded the immediate social democratization of the party. Delegates approved the new program but rejected the name change.

During 1991 and 1992 factional tensions increased, with the party's conservative anti-revisionist wing increasingly vocal in criticizing Svoboda. There was an increase in popularity of the anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist Clubs amongst rank and file party members. On the party's other wing, the Democratic Left became increasingly critical of the slow pace of the reforms and began demanding a referendum of members to change the name. In December 1991 the Democratic Left split off and formed the short-lived Party of Democratic Labour. The referendum on changing the name was held in 1992, with 75.94% voting not to change the name.

The party's second congress, held in Kladno in December 1992, showed the increasing popularity of the party's anti-revisionist wing. It passed resolutions reinterpreting the 1990 program as a "starting point" for the KSČM, rather than a definitive statement of a post-communist program. Svoboda, who was hospitalized due to an attack by an anti-communist extremist, couldn't attend the congress but was nevertheless overwhelmingly reelected.

In 1993, Svoboda attempted to expel the members of the 'For Socialism' platform, a group in the party that wanted a restoration of the pre-1989 communist regime. However, with only the lukewarm support of the KSČM's Central Committee, he briefly resigned. He withdrew his resignation after the Central Committee agreed to move the party's next congress forward to June 1993 to resolve the issues of its name and ideology.

At the 1993 congress, held in Prostějov, Svoboda's proposals were overwhelmingly rejected by two-thirds majorities. Svoboda did not seek reelection as chairman, and neocommunist Miroslav Grebeníček was elected chairman. Grebeníček and his supporters were critical of what they termed the "inadequacies" of the pre-1989 regime but supported the retention of the party's communist character and program. The members of the 'For Socialism' platform were expelled at the congress, with the existence of "platforms" in the party being banned altogether, on the grounds they gave too much influence to minority groups.

After the party's second congress in 1992, several groups split away. A group of postcommunist delegates split off and merged with the Party of Democratic Labour to form the Party of the Democratic Left (SDL). Several independent left-wing members who had participated with the KSČM in the 1992 electoral pact called the Left Bloc left the party to form the Left Bloc Party (SLB). Both groups eventually merged into the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which does some joint work, and co-operates with the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. Svoboda also left the party and eventually joined the ČSSD in 1997. Several smaller groups split away.

The expelled members of 'For Socialism' formed the 'Party of Czechoslovak Communists' (later renamed the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), led by Miroslav Štěpán. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia refuses to work with this group.

The party was left on the sidelines for most of the first decade of the Czech Republic's existence. Václav Havel suspected the KSČM was still an unreconstructed Stalinist party and kept it from having any influence during his presidency. However, the party provided the one-vote margin that elected Havel's successor Václav Klaus as president.

After a long-running battle with the Ministry of the Interior, in 2006 the KSCM's youth section — the Communist Youth Union (KSM) led by Milan Krajča — was dissolved, allegedly for endorsing in its program the replacement of private with collective ownership of the means of production. The decision met with international protests.

In November 2008, the Senate of the Czech Republic asked the Supreme Administrative Court to dissolve the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia because of its political program, which the Senate claimed contradicted the Constitution of the Czech Republic. 30 out of the 38 senators who were present agreed to this request and expressed the viewpoint that the program of KSČM does not disown violence as a means of attaining power and adopts The Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx. This was however only a symbolic gesture because according to the Constitution only the Cabinet may file a petition to dissolve a political party with the Supreme Administrative Court.

Popular support and electoral results

The KSČM's strongest bases of support are in the regions hit by deindustrialization, particularly in Karlovy Vary and Ústí nad Labem. In 2012 it won the regional election for the first time, in the Ústí nad Labem region. Its regional leader Oldřich Bubeníček then became first communist regional governor in the history of Czech republic. The party is stronger with older voters than younger voters, with the majority of the membership being over 60. The party is also stronger in small and medium-sized towns than in big cities, with Prague consistently being the party's weakest region. It is a third largest party in the Czech Chamber of Deputies, position it held continuously after all elections to this chamber in the history of Czech republic except those in 2010, when it came fourth.