Brief history

Czech Republic’s history dates back to 1918, when Czechoslovakia – our first republic - was formed. In 1948 the Communist Party won the legally held elections and ceased power. Since that time, they dismissed all other parties and so no opposition was possible for more than 40 years. In 1968 people started to rebel, but the Soviet army came (invited by some communist leaders) and stopped the popular uprising by force. When Gorbatchev came to power in the Soviet Union, things started to change, the pressure from the government was beginning to loosen and the student demonstrations in fall of 1989 were beginning to gain momentum. That is when on November 17, 1989 the Czech communist government decided to make an end to these non-violent protests and ordered the policemen to use force to suppress the demonstration. Many people were beaten up on that day, fortunately no one was killed. This even triggered more demonstrations and many more people started to attend the demonstrations that took place in the following days. What started as a student movement now became a mass movement – on November 20, 1989 there were 150 000 people demonstrating against the totalitarian regime and demanded investigation of the violent police actions of November 17th. On November 27th the whole country went on a two-hour general strike. On December 3rd the communist government formed a new government with 16 communists and 5 non-communists. However, people rejected this government and continued with their demonstrations. Eventually another government was formed on December 10th, this time for the first time after 41 years the communists were a minority. This changed significantly the future direction of our country.

Split with Slovakia

In 1992 the Czech and Slovak politicians were unable to work together and they have decided to split the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (as was the official name at that time) into two separate countries – Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. The countries officially separated on January 1, 1993 – without any referendum by us, the people of this country. The separation was nevertheless a non-violent one without any problems or incidents of any kind.

Current economical and political status

After the fall of the communist regime, our economy became free-market economy (as opposed to central-planning economy during the communist era), many new parties began to participate in the elections, the president’s powers were stripped and prime minister became the leader of the executive power. We have a two-chamber parliament - Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. We joined the NATO in 1997 (without any referendum) and the EU in 2004 (with referendum, which was preceded by an “informational campaign” worth 6 million Euros paid by the EU – making sure we will vote YES).
After the “velvet revolution” of 1989 the power was in the hands of a party which later transformed into a right-wing ODS (Civic Democratic Party) – the current opposition. It is during this party’s rule that the “economic transformation” took place, during which companies worth billions of Czech crowns (Czech currency) have been privatized. The process was highly non-transparent and it is a common opinion that most of the privatized companies ended in the hands of the communist directors, who were running them at that time. In this way, the former communists became the rich elite governed and protected by the ODS party. By 1997 people began to realize what has been taking place and forced premature elections, in which the opposition left-wing party CSSD (Czech Social Democratic Party) won. In 1998 these two big parties (ODS and CSSD) tried to change our electoral system to a majority system, where only two parties would rule. Fortunately they have failed due to complains and law suits by other parties. CSSD has been in power since the preliminary 1997 elections; however, the current predictions indicate that they will loose power in the upcoming June elections and the ODS will go back to power. The current electoral predictions are as follows: ODS 29%, CSSD 25%, Communist Party 18%, The Green Party 11% and Christian-Democrats 10%. Other parties are below the discriminatory 5% line, which prevents us from entering the Chamber of Deputies. Currently the left-wing CSSD often rules with the silent support of the Communists, even though in theory the government coalition (consisting of the CSSD, Christian-Democrats and the Union of freedom) should have a minimal majority (together they have 101 votes out of 200 deputies).
Generally there is a very big discrimination towards the “small” parties. We do not get any government financial support for the campaign (unlike parties which obtain more than 1,5% of the votes in the elections), we do not get any financial support for managing the party (unlike parties which obtain more than 3%) and we only get a representative in the Parliament if we obtain more than 5% of the votes. The parties that are in the Chamber of Deputies passed such laws, which make it next to impossible for other parties to enter the Chamber.

General Situation

Currently we live in a “normal democracy” of the western type, suffering from the same causes as our western friends. Democracy is very formal (currently there are only 4 parties in the Chamber of Deputies, one of which is the communist party), the media are all owned by western investors, who make sure they only publish what is good for them, people don’t have any big dreams towards the future, young people are smoking marihuana and drinking, older people are violent with themselves and with others around them.

Our communist history

During the communist era, many good thing and many bad things were taking place. For some reason, after the fall of the communist regime most of the people only tend to remember the bad things. Here are some examples: During the communist time because of the central planning (which was not too good), often times we were running into shortages. For instance there were times, when toilet paper was out of stock. People had to wait in long lines to get a roll of toilet paper. Generally people had to wait in lines for almost anything, everyday. Telephones weren’t available – you had to wait several years before you got one. It was not possible to travel outside the country without the approval from the state. Generally we were only allowed to travel to the East, not to the West. There was no freedom of speech – if one spoke against the System (even just mention a joke about the communists), one could end up in prison. People were forced to participate in cooperatives against their will, forced to spy on their friends and relatives, forced to become members of the Communist party, otherwise their children will to be allowed to study, they were tortured, even killed if they did not cooperate.
This lack of freedom of movement, freedom of speech and compulsory participation in the Communist propaganda are perhaps the most vivid things that people remember about the communist time.
However, there were also many good things about the communist era which more and more people are now beginning to realize. Perhaps we can use this opportunity to remind them all the things that were better then than are now: Education was (and still is) free for all, up to university level, including PhD studies. Healthcare was (and partially still is) free for all. There was no unemployment. There were no homeless people – everybody was given a place to live. There was no hurry. People spent more time with themselves, with their family and friends. Family was more of a value than it is now. So was friendship. Money did not matter (because we all had more or less the same amount).
When talking to Czech people, you will probably notice big difference in how they perceive the communists based on their age. The younger generation (below 20 years) knows very little of the communist era – they only know what they have heard from their parents or teachers or what they have read or watched. On the other hand the older generation (above 30 years) has a very good memory of the past. Mostly, these memories are not too good (as you can imagine – otherwise we would never abolish the communist regime). Therefore the older people tend to negate everything that has anything to do with communism. For example it would be very difficult for us to openly say here that we want to build a coalition with the Communist party. Nobody in the 16 years of our post-communist history ever said that they would cooperate with the communists. It would be a “political suicide”. On the other hand, there is no problem speaking of your good experience in Chile, while making sure that you also explain the difference between the Czech Communist Party and the Chilean Communist Party.
When you will come, please keep in mind our communist past. Whenever we say the word “communist”, many people will recall the horrible things that the communists have been doing in the name of the “higher good”. This in turn awakens their negative emotions and no more dialog is possible.