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Politics in Central Europe

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Politics in Central Europe Politics in Central Europe The Journal of the Central European Political Science Association Volume 7 Number 2 December 2011 Regional Politics in Central Eastern Europe Next Issue: Cultural Transformation in Central Europe The articles published in this scientific review are placed also in SSOAR (Social Science Open Access Repository), http://www.ssoar.info CONTENTS ESSAYS Ladislav Cabada The Role of Central European Political Parties in the Establishment and Operation of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group . 5–18 Michaela Ježová Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Balkans . 19–37 Petr Jurek Possibilities for and Limitations of Regional Party Development in the Czech Republic and Slovakia . 38–56 Michal Kubát Reforming Local Governments in a New Democracy: Poland as a Case Study . 57–67 Přemysl Rosůlek Consolidation of the Centre-Right Political Camp in Hungary (1989–2002), Nationalism and Populism . 68–97 DISCUSSION Ladislav Jakl Regional European Integration of the Legal Protection of Industrial Property . 98–116. Tadeusz Siwek A Political-Geographic Map of Poland before the 2011 Election . 117–125. BOOK REVIEWS . 126–129 GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS . 130–135 Politics in Central Europe 7 (December 2011) 2 ESSayS The Role of Central European Political Parties in the Establishment and Operation of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group1 Ladislav Cabada abstract: Central Eastern European political parties influenced and changed the ideological debate in the European parliament after the Eastern enlargement in 2004/2007 significantly. As the most influential ideological stream with a Central Eastern European “origin” or background we could observe the so-called Eurore- alist (or Eurogovernmentalist) political parties such as the Polish Right and Justice (PiS) or Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS). European Parliament deputies from these political parties joined, in 2003/2004, the internal debate in the European People’s Party about the present and future development of the European integra- tion process and contributed to the division of the faction after the EP-elections in 2009. The aim of this article is to analyse the ideological motives for the division and establishment of a new European political party and EP group, namely, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group. Specifically, the position and influence of Central Eastern European political parties will be stressed and analysed. Within the ECR, of the 10 political parties from 9 EU-member states with the total of 56 MEPs, Central Eastern Europe is represented by 6 parties (and 2 independent MEPs) with 27 MEPs, which is almost half of the total number of all faction members. Further to this, politicians from Central Eastern Europe are lead- ing the faction (since March 2011 Jan Zahradil /ODS/, before him Michal Kamiński /PiS/) and so taking part in the important organisational and programmatic debate on EP-leadership. We examine how far the European Conservatives and Reform- ists Group represents specifically the “Central Eastern European” case; what are the programmatic basics of the group and the important national political parties and how far the faction has the potential to win over any new parties or individual members from both EU-member states and also candidate states. 1 This article was prepared as part of the grant project Stranické systémy zemí středovýchodní Ev- ropy [Party Systems in Central Eastern Europe] (P408/10/0295) through the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic . The paper has been presented at the Annual Conference of Central European Political Science Association Multi-level Politic: Intra- and Inter-level Comparative Politics (Vi- enna, October 2011) . 5 The Role of Central European Political Parties in the Establishment and Operation of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group Ladislav Cabada Keywords: European political parties, Conservative Party Family, Conserva- tives and Reformists Group, Euroscepticism, Eurogovernmentalism, Right and Justice, Civic Democratic Party Introduction The conservative family of political parties represents a traditional and important group within the European political environment which had and still has a signifi- cant say in political events in the continental, or Union, context as well as in the majority of the European Union member states . This statement is valid despite the fact that conservatism had to be rebuilt again after 1989 in Central Eastern Europe, i .e . in the group of the so-called post-Communist countries . The renewal of con- servative values in societies exposed to the massive dissolution of traditional cul- tural, social, economic, and political values and structures was, in our opinion, far more difficult compared to other political trends representing the other poles of the classical ideological triangle, i .e . liberalism and socialism, as well as compared to the so-called new ideologies and political players who represent them . The reason behind this discrepancy is actually one of the main characteristics of the conserva- tive ideology and of those political players arising from this ideology, who rely on traditions and shared and passed on habits . These had been principally denied in the countries of the Eastern block and their enforcement became the reason for persecution so forceful and brutal that it could only be compared to dealing with the so-called enemy within of the Communist state parties and renegades from the Stalinist faith (Trotskyites, Titoists, etc .) . It was these very conservative political parties, which were usually the first ones to be eliminated during the transition process to totalitarian regimes at the end of WWII and the years that followed; Czechoslovakia and its National Democratic Party, The Small Businessmen Party and The Republican (Agrarian) Party can serve as examples (Vodička – Cabada 2011: 66) . It should therefore not be surprising that the restoration – or a new establishment – of the conservative political parties in the countries of Central Eastern Europe was and often still is full of turbulence, factionalism, the seeking a new ideological platform as well as renewal, the search for or establishment of new “traditions”, “traditional values” etc . Observation of national political arenas in the so-called post-communist countries offers plenty of different, often very remarkable rival- ries or, on the contrary, alliances . Liberal-conservative political parties that stress neoliberal economic axioms represent a significant group: e .g . the Czech Civic Democratic Party (Občanská demokratická strana, ODS), the Slovak Christian and Democratic Union – Democratic Party (Slovenská demokratická a křesťanská únia – Demokratická strana, SDKÚ–DS) or the Hungarian Democratic Forum (Magyar 6 Politics in Central Europe 7 (December 2011) 2 Demokrata Fórum) . Christian-Social conservative parties represent a similarly important group: e .g . Poland’s Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawedliwość, PiS) or Romania’s Conservative Party (Partidul Conservator, PC), which creates an elec- tion coalition together with Romania’s social democrats . The conservative parties in Central Eastern Europe do not seldom turn to populism stemming mainly from nationalistic positions; such tendencies can be observed with some of the above- mentioned entities as well as e .g . at the Latvian party For Fatherland and Free- dom / The Latvian National Conservative Party (Tēvzemei un Brīvībai / Latvijas Nacionálas Neatkarbas Kustíba, TB/LNNK) (cf . Cabada – Hloušek et al . 2009) . Similarly as in the case of Western European conservative entities, the newly established conservative entities in the post-communist countries of Central East- ern Europe have been trying to solve the question of their relation to the Chris- tian-Democratic party family within national political systems as well as at the European level . The border between conservative and Christian-oriented entities was drawn in some countries in relation to preserving the continuity of the Chris- tian-defined subject parties that had already existed within the framework of the non-democratic communist system (the Czech and Polish people’s parties); while elsewhere conservative and Christian-Democratic principles integrated within one entity Slovakia’s Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – The Democratic Party (SDKÚ-DS) or Lithuania’s Homeland Union – The Lithuanian Christian Demo- crats (Tėvynėssąjunga–Lietuvoskrikščionysdemokratai, TS-LKD) . The aim of this text is to analytically observe the integration of significant con- servative political parties in the countries of Central Eastern Europe into broader European discussion about the position of conservative parties within the system of political families .We want to follow processes connected to the development of the relationship to the Christian-democratic countries, common topics of the conserva- tive and Christian-democratic politics in a European context and the reasons behind the conflicts between both these political entities within European party federations (The European People’s Party and European Democratic Union) . Last but not least we want to concentrate on reasons and circumstances behind the diversion of part of the conservative entities from the institutional and program cooperation with the Christian Democrats . In this context we will observe namely the position of the Czech Republic’s Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) right before the Czech Republic’s, Poland’s, and other countries’
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