The Condition of Communist Parties in Europe on the Example of the Czech and Belgian Political Landscape

Abstract

The electoral weakness of communist parties in Europe in the third decade of the 21st century makes them irrelevant political actors. Nevertheless, their political trajectories are different, as exemplified by examples from the Czech Republic and Belgium. The subject of the analysis is two political parties: the Belgian Labour Party (Parti du Travail de Belgique/Partij van de Arbeid van België, PTB/PVDA) and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Kommunistická strana Čech a Moravy, KSČM), which were compared taking into account the same criteria: party genesis, ideological heritage, place in the party system, organisational model and style of communication with the environment.
The aim of the paper is to answer the question of whether the different electoral dynamics of the two parties is a consequence of their genesis, or rather their ability (or lack thereof) to adapt to the political realities in which they have come to function in the third decade of the 21st century.
The research was conducted on the basis of an analysis of the electoral results of both parties, internal party documents (statutes, membership base data), observations of media activity, as well as on the interviews conducted with representatives of the political parties under study.
The analysis shows that, for the condition of communist parties in Europe, the ability to adapt radically left-wing demands to social expectations and their communication skills are much more important than historical issues.