STRANA ZELENÝCH NA VZESTUPU? ANALÝZA KRAJSKÝCH VOLEB V ROCE 2004
IS THE GREEN PARTY ON THE RISE? AN ANALYSIS OF CZECH REGIONAL ELECTIONS IN 2004

Summary/Abstract: For a long time the Czech Green Party belonged to a group of marginal political subjects. It had a bad reputation, low political support, and it stood outside the main stream of environmental activism. It was considered as an obscure association, whose representatives were linked to “shady” activities. According to some observers, it was just their title that had something in common with “green” politics. At the beginning of the new millennium the Greens were in such a crisis, that they started to cry for a modernisation and innovation. The vital break came with the „resurgence“ congress in March 2002, when environmental groups relinquished their suspicious attitudes toward the Green Party. The environmental initiatives joined an almost defunct party in order to create a new political subject, which would be closer to ecological politics. Since that time the Green Party has step by step regained its lost confidence among the voters and it has slowly become the most important political party outside the House of Representatives of the Czech Parliament. Since the autumn senate elections 2004 the Greens have a representative in the Upper Chamber of the Czech Parliament. The question is whether the Greens have a chance to get into the Lower Chamber. Based on an analysis of the regional elections in autumn 2004 I predict that they are able to enter to the Lower House in the short or medium-term horizon. This prediction is plausible if the Greens extend their programme beyond the ecological and social issues, and if they co-operate with other small political parties.

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