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By Daniela Lazarova
As election day draws near the pace is heating up and the two arch
rivals on the Czech political scene - ODS leader Vaclav Klaus and
Social Democrat leader Milos Zeman are on hectic campaign trails
across the country.
Klaus' star is rising and as the gap between their
support rating diminishes political observers are wondering whether
the one-time model Central European premier can achieve the near-
impossible, beat his confident arch rival within months of his fall
from grace. Politologists have commented on a possible parallel with
the 1992 elections in Great Britain when a last minute shift in voter
sympathy dashed Neil Kinnock's hopes of ascending to power - and Tyden
magazine has gone for an in-depth analysis of the Hungarian elections
in which the dynamic Victor Orban literally pulled premier Gyula
Horn's victory from under his feet. It is totally irrational - Gusztav
Molner told Tyden.
Horn had everything in his favour, excellent
economic results, the support of businessmen, bankers and the media -
and he was beaten by youth, dynamism and excellent communication
skills. Molnar says that Orban's charismatic bid for voter sympathy
reminds him of Klaus of the 90's or Klaus of recent weeks.
How did Orban manage to turn things to his own advantage? According
to some politologists he won because he "overtook Horn from the left",
outdoing him by promising to reintroduce blanket child benefits and
bigger state subsidies to the housing sector, among other things.
Orban himself has rejected such arguments, arguing " labels are for
waging ideological battles - they won't help us solve the country's
problems. I don't care whether we are going to create thousands of
jobs through liberal or conservative politics as long as we create
them. What we need is pragmatism". This new political outlook in
Hungary has been labelled "meta-politics" Tyden notes and Victor Orban
himself has been labelled "Hungary's Tony Blair". The only question
is - the weekly concludes - whether Fidesz will be able to deliver on
its exceedingly generous promises...
While party leaders are now focused exclusively on boosting their own
chances in the general elections, Czechs are bewildered by the
hostility which appears to be closing the door on any possible
coalition set-up. While in previous elections, most doors were left
open until after the outcome, now they are being slammed with a
vengeance on one-time allies. In an article entitled "I am not
playing if he is" the Prague Post notes that the biggest post-election
challenge will apparently be in finding political parties that can
stand sitting in the same room with each other. So far, any coalition
capable of gaining a majority in Parliament has been ruled out by at
least one of the parties. Vaclav Klaus has totally rejected the
possibility of a broad coalition with the Social Democrats. The
Christian Democrats oppose a coalition with the Social Democrats if
the Pensioners' Party is asked to join, while the Freedom Union has
ruled out a coalition both with the ODS and the Social Democrats.
Apart from the Social Democrats every other party is shunning the
Pensioners...
The election campaign is wild and dirty accordingly. Party politics
have taken a back seat to slander . An ODS campaign newspaper for
instance calls interim prime minister Josef Tosovsky "comrade" for his
past party membership, refers to the Christian Democrats as "traitors"
and claims that President Vaclav Havel and Christian Democrat leader
Josef Lux conducted an anti-reform putsch which ousted Vaclav Klaus
from power several months ago. The ODS now claims to be the only right
wing party on the Czech political scene and ODS vice chairman Ivan
Langer is at present entertaining election rallies with a poem of his
own making in which only the ODS can save the Czech Republic from the
horror of a world ablaze with red roses, cherries, trees and a snake -
symbols of the social democrats, communists, Freedom Union and
Christian Democrats which the ODS itself has branded with the symbol
of treason. Small wonder that president Havel recently told
journalists reading the days papers "saddened and disheartened him".
/ P.S. Original Langer poem featured in Respekt . English translation
courtesy of Vladimir Tax, RP's economics expert who has a softer side
to him....
Field of roses, rouge and prickly,
Red are cherries, high they grow,
Wind in the trees, sadly blowing
Among them a snake is crawling ....
This dream may come true quickly-
unless the blue bird stops the show.
©
Copyright 1997
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