Better Late Than Never for Czech Prime Minister

After five days of uncharacteristic squirming in the political spotlight, Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus got the go-ahead Thursday to form a new government, even though his right-wing coalition narrowly lost its parliamentary majority in weekend elections.

Czech President Vaclav Havel made the announcement after meeting with Klaus and leaders from the country’s other major political parties. Havel said he had received assurances that the parties are willing to support a Klaus-led minority government if power-sharing details can be worked out over the coming weeks.

In a humbling blow to the normally self-assured Klaus, Havel gave his nod to the ruling prime minister only after the opposition Social Democrats--the surprise left-wing spoilers in the election--consented to the arrangement. A furious Klaus had expected the go-ahead days ago, but Social Democratic leader Milos Zeman hesitated about going along.

Klaus and Zeman have long been political enemies, but Havel made it clear after the election that a new government “would be unthinkable” without the concurrence of the Social Democrats. The delay temporarily shook financial markets and raised concerns among some Western investors of political instability, but most analysts do not expect the Social Democrats to threaten the country’s economic turnaround.

The party, a minor player in the 1992 elections, surged into second place last weekend with more than a quarter of the vote, finishing just three percentage points behind Klaus’ Civic Democratic Party. Unlike other social democratic parties in Eastern Europe, the Czech party is not a retooled Communist party, and its leaders have supported free-market reforms--albeit with a social twist.

“We are prepared to support the current coalition, but only with guarantees,” Egon T. Lansky, a top Zeman advisor, said in an interview. “We want the power in Parliament to stop some events, or control and help push through others.”

Havel’s decision means that the only conservative government remaining in newly democratic Eastern Europe is likely to continue in power, despite a backlash across the region by left-leaning voters against post-Communist reformers. But it also means that Klaus joins a long list of reform-minded politicians who have been chastened, if not tossed aside, by resurgent left-wing opponents.

For four years Klaus has been Eastern Europe’s cocky kingpin of free-marketeers, boasting that Czechs would never turn their backs on a government that transformed the country into the Cinderella story of the former Soviet Bloc--no matter how imperious he and his Civic Democratic Party may seem to voters.

And he has had good reason to brag. Nowhere else in the region has the economic transformation brought a more impressive mix of low unemployment, manageable inflation, robust growth and political stability. A confident Klaus pledged during the campaign that wages would double by the turn of the century if Czechs stayed the course.

But it appears, some analysts say, that Klaus underestimated voter dissatisfaction with his high-handed style and his seeming insensitivity to the suffering that reforms have inflicted on many Czechs.

“Klaus has an arrogance which irks a tremendous number of people,” political analyst Jolyon Naegele said. “He has never been at the top of the popularity list.”

Zeman, by contrast, spent months on the campaign trail motoring in a brightly painted bus and addressing small gatherings about such down-home issues as stronger retirement plans, better health care and more housing.

“The Civic Democratic Party ran a very backward-looking campaign, with even their slogan, ‘We have shown we can do it,’ pointing to the past,” said Jiri Pehe, an analyst at the Open Media Research Institute. “The Social Democrats said, ‘Yes, the Czech Republic has accomplished a lot, but we still need to deal with housing, health care and crime.’ It was a forward-looking message that impressed people.”

The result was that the Civic Democratic Party lost nearly 1 million of its 1992 voters, one survey showed, with the biggest hit coming from working-class males in depressed industrial areas. The party attracted nearly 800,000 new voters, many of whom live in prosperous Prague and have cashed in on the country’s economic turnaround.

In the meantime, the Social Democrats picked up 1.2 million new voters, while losing just 130,000, the survey showed.

The ruling coalition’s weakened mandate will make governing more difficult, perhaps requiring new elections as early as next spring.

“What happened in this country in the last four years is: Klaus governed literally unopposed,” Pehe said. “Now Klaus and the coalition will have to get used to having a strong opposition, finding compromises and negotiating. That means there will be much more discussion and debating, and that is very good for democracy.”