At the Roots of the Current Transformation of the Czech Communist Party

A century after the Communist Party was formed in Czechoslovakia, it still exists, as a survivor of several crises. After 1989, it has been seen as a relic of the former Communist regime as it was supposed to disappear quickly, but this did not happen during the first thirty years of post-Communist evolution. Even if we should have already witnessed the weakening of the basis of the party, it was only during the 2021 General Elections that it became unable to enter the Parliament. After this turning point, it apparently moved towards a more nationalistic stance, turning “brown,” focusing more on illiberal and nationalist rhetorics. This situation became obvious in the frame of the Communists-led Stačilo! (Enough!) coalition for the European elections in 2024. I propose an analysis balancing two possible explanations, on the one side the observation of a new orientation explained by the current electoral crisis masking a hidden identity deeply rooted in the history (a party change in the Gauja 2016 sense).