Skip to main content
Regional secretary with the National Education Union
After the elections: Communism in the Czech Republic
After a devastating loss of support that saw one of the most successful Communist parties in Europe fail to enter parliament, international head JAROSLAV ROMAN speaks to Conrad Landin about how the nation's left can recover
"We chose the better from the worse” — Jaroslav Roman, the head of the international department for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia

SINCE the fall of the Warsaw Pact, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) has been among the most electorally successful of Europe’s Communist parties — consistently finishing in the top five slots in the Czech Republic’s legislative elections.

All that changed last month — when for the first time since the Nazi-aligned protectorate of 1939 to 1945, the territory which makes up the modern-day Czech Republic found itself with no Communists in Parliament. In the October elections, both the KSCM and the Czech Social Democatic Party (CSSD) finished below the threshold required to enter the Chamber of Deputies.

“It was not only a setback: it’s generally accepted within the party that it was a historical debacle,” says Jaroslav Roman, the head of the KSCM’s international department. “Frankly speaking, people are shocked. We had not expected such a heavy defeat.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
WON’T BE SILENCED: Petra Proksanova, head of the Youth Committee of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) and leader of the Stacilo (anti-capitalist and anti-cuts) movement in the upcoming elections
Features / 5 July 2025
5 July 2025

As the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia rebuilds support through anti-cuts campaigns, the government seeks to silence it before October’s parliamentary elections through liberal totalitarianism, reports JOHN CALLOW

Green Party Deputy Leader Zack Polanski AM speaking at the People's Assembly Against Austerity protest in central London. Picture date: Saturday June 7, 2025
Opinion / 4 July 2025
4 July 2025

Sixty Red-Green seats in a hung parliament could force Labour to choose between the death of centrism or accommodation with the left — but only if enough of us join the Greens by July 31 and support Zack Polanski’s leadership, writes JAMES MEADWAY

Heidi Reichinnek
Berlin Bulletin / 23 May 2025
23 May 2025

In part two of May’s Berlin Bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN, having assessed the policies of the new government, looks at how the opposition is faring

HARD-HITTING: Sevim Dagdelen
Interview / 8 February 2025
8 February 2025
Ben Chacko talks to Bundestag member for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, SEVIM DAGDELEN, about the continuing war in Ukraine, the economic crisis, controversies over immigration, the failings of Germany’s liberalised prostitution policy, and the importance of free speech