The Radical Left in Slovak Politics (Communist Party and Slovak Worker’s Front)

This article describes the two most important political parties of the Slovak extreme left - The Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) and The Slovak Worker’s Front (ZRS). KSS was recruited from the members of the old communist party that didn’t agree with the party’s transformation into the western type of a social-democratic party. Yet in the elections of 1992, 14,7% voters preferred a newly-formed Party of Democratic Left (SDĽ) and the old ortodox communist stream emerged out of the elections unsuccessful (0,76%). ICSS remained a non-parliamentary political party with approximately 3 % of voters’ support. In 1992, deputy SDĽ Ján Ľupták initiated founding of ZRS. His aim was to defend worker's interests. In 1994, Ľupták transformed the originally civic association into a political party. ZRS with its populistic program took over part of die SDĽ voters and won 13 of 150 mandates in the parliamentary elections (1994). Until 1998, it had been an ally of Mečiar’s Movement for democratic Slovakia (HZDS) in the government coalition. ZRS is nowadays a non-parliamentary party with only 1% of support.