1 E E P P E E R R N N E E u ur r o op pe ea an n P Pa ar r t t i i e es s E E l l e ec c t t i i o on ns s a an nd d R Re ef f e er r e en nd du um ms s N Ne et t w wo or r k k ELECTION BRIEFING NO 57 THE ABSENCE OF EUROPE IN THE CZECH PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION, MAY 28-29 2010 Vít Hloušek and Petr Kaniok Masaryk University Email: hlousek@fss.muni.cz:, kaniok@fss.muni.cz Key points:  At 62.6%, election turnout was significantly lower than the 1990s average but only slightly lower than the 2006 elections.  European issues were completely absent in the campaign and the level of Europeanisation within Czech party competition is negligible.  Both major poles of the Czech party system declined dramatically: the right wing Civic Democratic Party as well as the left wing Czech Social Democratic Party.  The Green party and Christian and Democratic Union-Czechoslovak Peoples’ Party lost their parliamentary representation.  Two new parties have gained parliamentary seats - Tradition-Responsibility- Prosperity 09 and Public Affairs - both of them right wing parties.  The possibility of creating an ideologically coherent coalition (composed of right- wing parties) with a clear majority in the House of Deputies of the Czech Parliament emerged for the first time since 1996. The outcome of the 2006 parliamentary elections prolonged the period of political stalemate between Czech left and the right-wing parties. 1 The Czech left, namely the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), won 100 seats. Right-wing and centrist parties - namely the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Christian and Democratic Union-Czechoslovak Peoples’ Party (KDU-ČSL) and the Green Party (SZ) - also won 100 seats. This situation only exacerbated the fragility of governance and the impossibility of reaching a clear governing majority; a condition reproduced in Czech politics a number of times since the 1990s. Two main consequences have followed from this. First, the period of negotiations before a cabinet with parliamentary support could be formed took a very long time. Mirek Topolánek’s coalition of the Civic Democratic Party, Christian and 1 See: Seán Hanley, ‘Europe and the Czech Parliamentary Elections of 2-3 June 2006’, European Parties Elections and Referendums Network Election Briefing No 27 at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sei/documents/epern_no_27.pdf.