Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia

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The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech: Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy) is a political party in the Czech Republic. It has a membership of 107,813 and is a member party of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left bloc in the European Parliament. It is also the only former ruling party in post-communist Eastern Europe not to drop the communist title from its name, although it changed the program to suit laws adopted after 1989.

It was formed in 1989 by the Extraordinary Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia which decided to create a party for the territories of Bohemia and Moravia, the areas that were to become the Czech Republic. Previously it had followed the pattern of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where there were distinct 'national' parties for regions inhabited by culturally and linguisitically distinct national minorities, but not for the dominant nationality.

In 1990 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia became a federation of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and the Communist Party of Slovakia. Later, the Communist Party of Slovakia changed its name to the Party of the Democratic Left and the federation broke up in 1992.

After the party's second congress in 1992, several groups split away. The Party of the Democratic Left and The Party of the Left Bloc were the most important ones, and they eventually merged into the Party of Democratic Socialism. This party does some joint work with the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia.

Another split was the formation of the Party of Czechoslovak Communists (later renamed the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia). However, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia refuses to work with this group.

In June 2002, the CPBM received 18.5% of the vote for the Czech Republic's Chamber of Deputies. This made them the third largest party in Parliament, with 41 deputies.

In June 2004 the party came in second place in the European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, winning 6 of 24 seats.

In June 2006 parliamentary elections the party scored 12.8%, coming in third and far behind the Social Democrats and sinking to 26 mandates. The leadership showed its disappointment with regard to the party's 2002 results.

After a long-running battle with the Ministry of the Interior, the KSCM's youth section was dissolved, allegedly for endorsing in its program the replacement of private with collective ownership of the means of production. The decision has met with international protests.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.agitprop.eu/ksmappeal.html

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy

• CPBM web site

Political Parties in the Czech Republic
Chamber of Deputies (2006)	Civic Democratic Party (81) | Czech Social Democratic Party (74) | Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (26) | Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party (13) | Green Party (6)
Senate (2006)	Civic Democratic Party (41) | Czech Social Democratic Party (12) | Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party (11) | Caucus of Open Democracy (8 – 1 from each of Civic Democratic Alliance, Green Party*, Freedom Union - Democratic Union*, Liberal Reform Party*, Party for the Open Society*, Path of Change*, Civic Democratic Alliance and an independent candidate) | Caucus SNK (7 – SNK European Democrats 3, Independents Movement 2*, Independent Majors for Region 1*, Movement of Independents for Harmonious Development of Municipalities and Towns 1) | Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (2)
European Parliament (2004)	Civic Democratic Party (9) | Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (6) | SNK Union of Independents (3) | Czech Social Democratic Party (2) | Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party (2) | Independents Movement (2, now split to Independent Democrats and Politics 21)
(latest elections)	(seats; * for Senators from tiny electoral parties who are not their members) Source: Czech Statistical Office, Senate