Europeanisation or renationalisation?

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is twofold. First, to describe the influence of the economic crisis on the Czech party system, and second, to describe the growth of party and public Euroscepticism as one of the consequences of the economic crisis. The analysis consists of six parts. The second part briefly presents some key economic and labour market data. The third part analyses the role of former President Vaclav Klaus in the context of the debate around the economic crisis. As a known Eurosceptic, Klaus emerged as an agenda setter in the debates surrounding the crisis, warned about the disadvantages of future adoption of the Euro in CR, and emphatically contributed to the Czech government's opposition to the steps taken by the European Commission to prevent future crises. Klaus therefore took advantage of the Eurozone’s economic crisis to criticise the EU. In the fourth part, the reactions of political parties will be analysed. In this respect, attention will focus primarily on voters' dramatic shift away from the party which up to that point had been dominant, the ODS (Civic Democratic Party); to a certain extent this is also an indirect fallout from the economic crisis. Therefore, the topics of the stability of cleavages and the possible Europeanisation of patterns of party competition will also be discussed. The fifth part will focus on the Czech discussion concerned with the adoption of the euro; unlike the party system, this discussion was directly affected by the economic crisis. The sixth part will shed light on the position of the Czech public.