The 2010 Czech and Slovak Parliamentary Elections: Red Cards to the ‘Winners’

Abstract

2010 elections produced a significant change in government, and highlighted elements of stability and instability in party politics. Parties that had been permanent fixtures on the political scene for two decades fell below the threshold while newly emerged parties not only entered parliament, but went straight into government. The elections ushered in new governing coalitions of the centre-right, but in each case it was a left-leaning party that won the largest share of votes in their respective countries, ensuring that the ‘winners’ of the elections emerged as ‘losers’. Yet, although there were similarities in the elections, there were also notable differences. While in Slovakia the election was in some senses a referendum on the government in power, the existence of a caretaker, technocratic government in the Czech Republic meant no party was the incumbent. Commentators were quick to label the results ‘earthquakes’, particularly in the Czech Republic where four resignations by party leaders on election night certainly made the elections feel dramatic, although a closer look indicates that whilst the political tectonic plates moved, the tremors were on a par with the norm for postcommunist Europe.