The case of the Czech republic and the Slovak republic

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The Czech and the Slovak nations share a similar history for over a century. The attempt to coexist as just one common state definitely failed in the autumn of1992. This failure occurred when the Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus and the leader of the main Slovak party HZDS, Vladimír Meèiar, arrived at the conclusion that the break-up of the integrated republic would be the best solution to terminate the long-term encountered internal problems. Consequently, on the 1st of January 1993 two different countries emerged as the ?Czech Republic' and the ?Slovak Republic.' Today, both the Republics are members of NATO as well as the EU. Nevertheless the evolution of the former sibling countries has been slightly different. The Czech Republic's passage over a term of 40 years of subordination under the USSR into a functional democracy was less painful and cumbersome than the one witnessed by Slovakia. The Czechs became members of NATO in 1999, whereas the Slovaks could not be incorporated in the first wave of enhancement. It was at a later stage when Slovakia confronted various problems which drove into discussions about its preparedness that the negotiation process for the admission of the Czech and Slovak Republics into EU grew intense did the Slovak Republic gain entry into NATO.

Extraits

[...] They are in favor of further enlargement, but they are very careful about Turkish membership. In fact the KDU-ČSL is the only Czech political party which is rather against their membership. Like the ČSSD, they would like to have a referendum on this question. THE CASE OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC L´S-HZDS: People's party - Movement for Democratic Slovakia Despite their proclamations in favor of EU enlargement, this party likes to use arguments against the EU, mainly claiming that it is just a new, and well-hidden, form of totalitarianism which makes individual nations lose their sovereignty and national power and influence. [...]

[...] Therefore they are the most probable candidate to win the elections that will be held in 2006. In the EU Parliament they are affiliated to the Party of European Socialists. SMK: Party of Hungarian Coalition The SMK is a right-wing party which supports the government's decisions, mainly in the economic domain, where they are for the adoption of a package of restrictive measures leading to the retransformation of the Slovak economy after the problematic privatizations. This does not mean that they support the renationalization of key enterprises, but they see the role of the state mainly as a regulator or stimulator, rather than a controller. [...]

[...] Meanwhile, after the deceptions caused by the 1990s and the period of liberal governance of ODS, it has become more painless to express one's attachment to the values of the If we do not take into account the case of the unreformed Czech communists, there is no extreme left party gaining parliamentary seats, and neither does the extreme right have high aspirations. At the same time three of the Czech center/right parties (ODS, US-DEU and KDU-ČSL) have quite similar political objectives and goals, even though they are not willing to cooperate. That is why we can not enunciate any strong bipolarization of the Czech political scene, as is the case, for example, in the United Kingdom. [...]

[...] The KSČM are naturally against capitalism in its present form in the Czech Republic and most of their political proposals advocate the reinstallation of the regime which existed before 1989. Nevertheless the party itself is conscious of the impossibility of doing so; hence it has cooperated very intensively with the ČSSD lately, as already stated above. Consequently is has similar priorities and opinions to the ČSSD (welfare state policy, education system, health system etc.) The KSČM belongs to the left (GUE/NGL) European United Left /Nordic Green Left in the EU Parliament. [...]

[...] They rejected the idea of the European Constitution, and asserted the necessity of a referendum on this topic. Regarding further EU enlargement, they are not against, as they do not want to discriminate against Turkey for any reason, but on the other hand they are not particularly enthusiastic about their possible membership. In the context of EU questions, the Czech communists seem to be a rather opportunist party, knowing well that after all it is better to vote yes along with all the other parties. [...]