Yearbook 2006
Czech Republic. This spring's election campaign was
largely about financial issues. Both the government and the
bourgeois opposition promised lower taxes. The
market-oriented opposition party ODS went the longest with a
proposal for a unit tax of 15% for all income, similar to
the tax system in neighboring Slovakia. According to
CountryAAH, the ruling Social
Democratic Party (CSSD) promised not only reduced taxes but
also increased pensions and minimum wages.
When the election was held in June, the Democratic
Citizens' Party (ODS) performed strongly and won with just
over 35% of the vote before the CSSD, which received just
over 32%. The losing Social Democratic Gov. Jiří Paroubek
accused the opposition of a dirty campaign. ODS leader Mirek
Topolánek was commissioned to form a new government, which
proved to be very difficult. The Social Democrats, which
have become almost as large as the ODS, refused to support a
government led by Topolánek. While he managed to negotiate a
coalition agreement with the Christian Democratic Union and
the Green Party, the three parties lacked a majority in
Parliament. Political deadlock prevailed where no new
government proposals could be adopted.
Only in September did Topolánek's coalition take office
and a month later it lost a vote of confidence in
Parliament. The government submitted its resignation
application but was allowed to remain as an expedition
minister until a new coalition could be appointed. Following
the success of the ODS in the Senate and municipal elections
in October, the party's position strengthened, and in
November Topolánek was again given the task of forming a
government. Shortly before New Year, he announced that the
ODS, the Christian Democrats and the Greens had agreed to
form a minority coalition.
New tightening
The new party leader, Gustav Husák, met Moscow's demands
and allowed Czechoslovakia to surrender completely. From
1975 onwards he was also the President of the Republic. The
inmate of 68 was now prepared as: "a brotherly aid to the
counter-revolution". All the democratic reforms were
canceled, with the exception of the federalization of the
republic. The country was once again subject to total Soviet
control.
With a powerful wave of cleansing in 1969-70, hundreds of
thousands of reformist communists and others who supported
social reform were thrown out of political life. A large
number of them also lost their jobs and were affected by the
Berufsverbot. The bureaucratic dictatorship had
been restored by abuse of power, deliberate repression,
police surveillance, censorship and political imprisonment.
Czechoslovakia - which in the 1960s was the most free
country in the Soviet bloc - was transformed into the most
free and oppressed of them all.
The Husak regime exercised its power by means of a
special «community contract». This system did not have much
to do with socialism: The citizens of society who at least
pretended to be loyal to the rulers could live relatively
calmly and safely. They could deal with their private
interests in the normal way. Those who dared to criticize
conditions in the country were treated as second-class
citizens and asocial elements. As the country's government
was able to avoid a decline in living standards right up to
the late 1970s, the social majority subordinated itself to
this "contract". They had no alternative and remained
passive.
In 1977, a civil rights movement arose around the "
Charter 77 " manifesto. Through countless documents, this
movement openly criticized the violations of human civil
rights, which violated the Constitution and international
conventions. Meanwhile, the country's government brutally
beat down its critics. Between 1969 and 1979, around 6,000
people were arrested for "political crimes" as it was
phrased. At the same time the "repressive tolerance" was
used: they were not physically wiped out like in the Stalin
era. The opposition business could continue within very
narrow limits.
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