“It simply came to our notice then. I consider the policy of the far-right Workers’ Party of Social Justice to be completely incompatible with the policy of the CSSD. No steeper contradiction can be found. Unfortunately, there is nothing more to do with it, “Michal Šmarda, the party’s deputy chairman and mayor of Nové Město na Moravě, told Novinka.
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He added that he was against the approval of the candidate with businessman Petr Benda and was in the minority. The candidate was allegedly decided only by the board, which consists of 10 people, but only eight of them have a casting vote.
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Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček declined to comment on the matter, saying he spoke at the board. The rest did not answer.
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According to CSSD vice-president Jana Maláčová, there are more important problems for ČTK than solving candidates, and if the party agrees on something, it should stick to it.
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Zaorálek: Questioning the principles of the party
Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek, who is not a member of the board, also does not like the candidate’s composition.
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“I cannot accept that there should be someone like Mr Benda on our candidate who previously worked with right-wing extremists. Such a candidacy questions the basic principles of 140-year-old Czech social democracy, “he wrote on Twitter.
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Unfortunately, I was not involved in the debate on the new candidate @CSSD in the Ústí nad Labem region. But now I cannot accept that there should be someone like Mr. Benda on our candidate, who previously worked with right-wing extremists. Such a candidacy questions the basic principles of 140-year-old Czech social democracy.
– Lubomír Zaorálek (@ZaoralekL) July 29, 2020
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Hamáček excuses Bend’s cooperation with the far right by simply “slipping”.
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The whole process of approval is considered a violation of democratic principles by the party’s ex-minister and former interior minister Milan Chovanec.
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Inmate: A major clash for the CSSD
“Petr Benda is only a surrogate problem for the candidate. The main one is how the candidate was approved at all. A few people completely abolished the possibility of running for people from the region and submitted their own candidate. It is a fundamental conflict for the direction of the CSSD in the future, because this is beginning to smell like the decisions of a small group of people, “he did not spare the leadership and specifically the party chairman Jan Hamáček, his predecessor.
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Petr Benda and Jiří Paroubek resigned from the CSSD in 2011.
Photo: Jan Handrejch, Law
The dispute over the composition of the CSSD candidate has been going on in the Ústí nad Labem Region for many months. The party’s presidency did not initially approve the Better North candidate, composed of the CSSD, the Ústí nad Labem Citizens’ Forum and ProMost. The association thus prepared changes and created a new candidate. However, the presidency allegedly did not see it at all, and the board did not even vote on it and approved its own.
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It will be led by pediatrician Jaroslav Krákor (CSSD), the second is doctor Miloslav Jiránek (Health Sport Prosperity movement), the third place candidate is the deputy mayor of Varnsdorf in the Děčín region Petr Jakubec (CSSD) and the fourth place was taken by Benda (BEZPP), who was forced years ago to leave the party.
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Benda then figured on the joint candidate of the Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS), he also ran for the National Socialist Lev-21 of former Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek, with whom he worked closely in the Social Democracy.
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Nobody knows how the candidate came about
Milan Chovanec
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Now, some 60 members of the Bureau are calling and want to know why this is the case.
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“As a member of the party’s presidency, I was not given the opportunity to vote on the candidate. The board did not discuss the candidate of the three-party coalition at all and proposed its own, about which no one knows how it came into being, “Chovanec added, adding that he would not be surprised if there was a court dispute.
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The Board may intervene
According to another member of the presidency, former member of the board and current governor of the Pardubice region, Martin Netolický, however, the party leadership may intervene in the compilation of candidates.
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“The statutes make it possible to enter the creation of candidates centrally, they have even been amended because of that. In the past, it has happened to us several times that although they were formed democratically from below, the CSSD seemed out of place externally, because they acted completely differently from the others, ”Netolický explained. At the same time, however, he added that the Bureau should have been informed of the Bureau’s proposal.
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He considers Bendy’s inclusion to be a fad. “He’s more of a man of the past to me, and I think he’s a fad. But I don’t know him personally, “Netolický added.
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