Czech political parties think big – eliminate the Greens
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PRAGUE – After the June’s European elections, which sent representatives from only four political parties to the new European parliament, early national elections are on the way in the Czech Republic. Will the big players eliminate the liberal-oriented Green party from the political limelight?
Czech Greens differ in many ways. Unlike their German or French colleagues, they are mainly liberal-oriented, combining green policy with liberal elements. Unlike most other green parties in Europe, they succeeded to become part of a centre-right coalition government and thus combine green policy with liberal economic measures. And unlike most other green parties among the EU member states, they lost votes in the European elections instead of gaining them. The recently resigned party leader Martin Bursík has been surprisingly successful in convincing his not-as-green government colleagues to include major environmental issues in the priorities of the finishing Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Due to on-going internal quarrels and to the failure of winning a single seat in the European elections, the Greens are now struggling to regain strength and public support for this October’s elections.
The big political parties are now pretending to be playing the green card in order to prevent the Greens re-entering the big politics. If this happens, the Czech Republic would lose its current direction in many ways: Ex-president Vaclav Havel’s ideals would stop being represented in party politics, global deals on fighting CO2 emissions would cease to be a government priority, a constructive approach to European policy would no longer be assured and space for introducing new technologies and support research would be reduced.
Czech voters are now puzzled over whether they should risk giving their vote to the uncertain Greens, or simply voting for the lesser evil. Unfortunately, whatever the result, the Czech energy company ČEZ will surely have a stronger voice with the government. And this means introducing any energy-efficient, emission-curbing or nature-friendly technologies will be even more difficult. Do the Czechs realize the value of their vote?
This article was contributed by Jan Havlik, a consultant for Bellona in the Czech Republic.
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