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Czechoslovakia Political Parties
The operation of the new Czechoslovak government was
distinguished by stability. Largely responsible for this were the
well-organized political parties that emerged as the real centers
of power. Excluding the period from March 1926 to November 1929,
when the coalition did not hold, a coalition of five Czechoslovak
parties constituted the backbone of the government: Republican
Party of Farmers and Peasants, Czechoslovak Social Democratic
Party, Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, Czechoslovak
Populist Party, and Czechoslovak National Democratic Party. The
leaders of these parties became known as the Petka (The Five).
The Petka was headed by Antonin Svehla, who held the office of
prime minister for most of the 1920s and designed a pattern of
coalition politics that survived to 1938. The coalition's policy
was expressed in the slogan "We have agreed that we will agree."
German parties participated in the government beginning in 1926.
Hungarian parties, influenced by irredentist propaganda from
Hungary, never joined the Czechoslovak government but were not
openly hostile.
The Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants was formed in
1922 from a merger of the Czech Agrarian Party and the Slovak
Agrarian Party. Led by Svehla, the new party became the principal
voice for the agrarian population, representing mainly peasants
with small and medium-sized farms. Svehla combined support for
progressive social legislation with a democratic outlook. His
party was the core of all government coalitions between 1922 and
1938.
The Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party was considerably
weakened when the communists seceded in 1921 to form the
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, but by 1929 it had begun to
regain its strength. A party of moderation, the Czechoslovak
Social Democratoc Party declared in favor of parliamentary
democracy in 1930. Antonin Hampl was chairman of the party, and
Ivan Derer was the leader of its Slovak branch. The Czechoslovak
National Socialist Party (called the Czech Socialist Party until
1926) was created before World War I when the socialists split
from the Social Democratic Party. It rejected class struggle and
promoted nationalism. Led by Vaclav Klofac, its membership
derived primarily from the lower middle class, civil servants,
and the intelligentsia (including Benes).
The Czechoslovak Populist Party--a fusion of several Catholic
parties, groups, and labor unions--developed separately in
Bohemia in 1918 and in the more strongly Catholic Moravia in
1919. In 1922 a common executive committee was formed, headed by
Jan Sramek. The Czechoslovak Populists espoused Christian moral
principles and the social encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII.
The Czechoslovak National Democratic Party developed from a
post-World War I merger of the Young Czech Party with other right
and center parties. Ideologically, it was characterized by
national radicalism and economic liberalism. Led by Kramar and
Alois Rasin, the National Democrats became the party of big
business, banking, and industry. The party declined in influence
after 1920, however.
Data as of August 1987
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