Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Spidla still set to lead CSSD Party seeks direction as Zeman plans exit and elections near By Michael Mainville The Social Democratic Party (CSSD) convention scheduled for April is shaping up as little more than a coronation. Vladimir Spidla, Prime Minister Milos Zeman's 49-year-old first deputy and handpicked successor, faces no rivals for the party chairmanship that Zeman is giving up when the party gathers for its 30th Congress in Prague on April 6-8. "There are no doubts about Spidla being chosen the chairman. It is for sure," said Vladimir Prorok, a political scientist at Prague's Economics University. Less certain, however, is the ruling party's direction leading into elections next year. The CSSD is floundering under the so-called "opposition agreement," which has permitted the Social Democrats to govern with the support of the conservative Civic Democrats (ODS) since 1998. The CSSD lost ground to both the ODS and the increasingly popular center-right Quad Coalition in November's regional and Senate elections. Recent public-opinion surveys show the Quads would trounce the CSSD if parliamentary elections were held now. Spidla's first task as party chairman is likely to focus on rebuilding the party's base of support and feeling out potential coalition partners. "The party must find a recipe to survive," Prorok said. Some on the party's left wing believe the answer is a new platform and cooperation with "reasonable" members of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM). But the CSSD must first cancel a ban imposed on cooperating with the communists, drafted at its 1995 convention. Foreign Minister Jan Kavan, a front-runner for the post of CSSD deputy chairman, has even been touted as a possible leader of the leftist movement. But Spidla, the current labor and social affairs minister, has said that moving further left or working with the communists would be "disadvantageous" for the party. Stanislav Gross, the popular interior minister and Spidla supporter who is expected to gain the position of first deputy chairman, also opposes working with the communists. Observers say this opposition gives the party's left wing little hope of succeeding. "Kavan can be expected to become the party deputy chairman, so left-wing politicians will be represented in the party leadership," Charles University political scientist Rudolf Kucera said. "But the main principles of CSSD policy will stay in place and it will not cooperate with the KSCM." The charismatic Zeman, who announced he would leave his party post three years ago, prefers the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) as a possible coalition partner for the CSSD. Spidla, a centrist, is expected to attempt to cement such a relationship going into 2002 national elections. The party made a tentative move toward the Quads in late March when it joined forces with the Christian Democrats and Freedom Union, both Quad members, to form a coalition in Prague 10's city hall, locking out the ODS. -- Jana Donovan and Yekaterina Zapletnyuka contributed to this report. Michael Mainville's e-mail address is mmainville@praguepost.cz