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The main aim of the article is to contribute to the bourgeoning debate on semipresidentialism, its definition, and its characteristic features, with analysis of the empirical example of the Czech Republic, a country which, according to Elgie´s standard definition, shifted to semi-presidentialism in 2012. The author investigates whether and how Miloš Zeman, the first directly elected president of the Czech Republic, influences relations among the key political institutions in the direction of the model of a semi-presidential democracy. The paper sets out the working concept of semi-presidentialism first and, through the lenses of process tracing, analyses the goals and acts of Zeman after he entered office in January 2013. The case study of the Czech Republic sheds light not only on the recent development(s) in the Czech political system, but it can be seen as an interesting example of how strong political personalities are attempting to expand their influence on politics in a parliamentary democracy and what the possible limits of this effort are.

The article deals with the membership of the most important Czech political party, ANO (meaning "yes" in Czech), led by Andrej Babiš, in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Our goals are to reconstruct how Babiš's party joined ALDE and to discuss the ideological differences between ANO and ALDE. The paper shows that ALDE's offer of membership in 2014 was motivated by a pragmatic need to bolster its own position in the European Parliament; ANO, meanwhile, needed to anchor itself in European politics. Andrej Babiš's technocratic and illiberal view was not apparent at the beginning, but more importantly, this did not matter to ALDE. ALDE's Czech "point of contact," ANO's foreign policy expert and the leader of its party group in the European Parliament, Pavel Telička, made ANO's membership credible. However, as a Euro-optimist, Telička was not compatible with ANO's flexible ideological character in the long term and the party group split up. A comparison of the parties' European Parliament election manifestos and positions on crucial controversial European issues clearly reveals a deep division between ALDE and ANO—and their fundamentally opposed ideological positions. We describe the findings as a new hyper-pragmatic trend in the creation of Europarties, which weakens their ideological cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do soft and hard Eurosceptics differ from each other? This question has become more salient in recent years, as party-based Euroscepticism has been affecting daily mainstream European politics. This article explores this question through an examination of the impact of Brexit outside the United Kingdom. Using the Czech Republic, a country with a strong tradition of party-based Euroscepticism, we analyze representatives of both categories in the context of pro-EU parties. Using official party reactions to Brexit, we argue that the reactions of both camps substantially vary. While soft Eurosceptics consider Brexit to be an opportunity to reform the EU, hard Eurosceptics see Brexit as a call to destroy the EU. Moreover, the position of soft Eurosceptics is closer to the stance of pro-EU parties than to that of hard Eurosceptics. Our research thus contributes to a greater understanding of party-based Euroscepticism and to forming a clearer conceptualization of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the way that the Czech extremist – as well as the mainstream – politicians use to frame the issues related to Moslem migration. The paper seeks to find the answer to a situation of successful use of anti-Islam and anti-immigrant campaigning in the country, which is neither a destination country nor an important transit country for the migrants. The paper approaches the topic through the conceptual lenses of the concept of cognitive frames. By discursive analysis of selected Czech politicians’ rhetoric in the period of 2015–2016, the authors show how politicians are constructing the cognitive frameworks on migrants and refugees, connecting these groups with radical Islam and the construct of danger, thus shifting the migration issue from the framework of international assistance and aid to securitized frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low interest in the political questions of European integration in Central and Eastern European countries, which has sometimes lead to apathy, and in some cases to increasing Euroscepticism among the citizens, can perhaps be partially explained by the lack of expertise and interest among politicians. This article analyses data on the level of knowledge and position towards the European Union among Czech political elites in the Czech Republic. Using party manifestos and secondary literature, the authors present a conceptual map of the Czech debate among Czech political parties and party politicians on the EU. First, the main currents of the debate are shown, as well as, and especially, the superficial, vague and ideological nature of that debate. The key narratives are divided according to positive and negative attitudes toward the EU and European integration in general, as well as according to domestic or imported sources of a party's view on integration. In the second part of this article, the broader views of Czech political elites who focus on EU politics are presented and discussed. Original data from the expert survey are presented. The authors show that the debate of "European" politics by the expert elite is much better structured and less ideological than among the politicians, although it is not quite as consensual as expected. The political narratives are present among the elites of European politics in the Czech Republic as well, which can hamper the necessary communication between politicians and the experts and, as a consequence, rather naïve and superficial features of the Czech political debate on integration tend to persevere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2010 parliamentary election resulted in the unprecedented electoral success of the Public Affairs, the first electorally successful exclusively populist political party in the history of the Czech Republic. The article examines the history, ideological profile and the internal organization of the party and concludes that the success of the party was facilitated by the growing dissatisfaction with the political situation. The VV result also indicates (together with the success of TOP 09 and the drop in electoral support for ODS) that the dynamics of the party system are changing, and that the right-wing/centre part of the political spectrum in the Czech Republic is undergoing restructuring. When assessing the organizational structure of the party, VV can be labelled as an excellent example of business-firm party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the discourse of Vaclav Klaus on European integration by analysing his discourse on the euro during his term of office as President of the Czech Republic. The authors apply critical discourse analysis to selected speeches by Klaus, using their findings to analyse Klaus's position on the euro and European integration through the conceptual lens of soft versus hard Euroscepticism and the difference between the strategic and ideological foundations of Klaus's views. The research confirms the expectation that a consistent, deeply ideological motivation lies behind Klaus's negligible concern for strategy, as well as finding a connection between national-conservative political and neoliberal economic streams in Klaus's political thought. The analysis also brings interesting insights into the debate over the concept of Euroscepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has been changing since the start of the economic crisis in 2008. Many previously uncontested issues -- among them the euro - have been challenged. As a result of these developments, attitudes usually labelled as Euroscepticism have become more accepted as a part of the political mainstream. This article tries to identify -- on the basis of the analysis of the euro discourse of Václav Klaus, former Czech president and prominent Eurosceptic -- whether the current critical atmosphere in the EU can be explained through assumptions of theoretically defined soft and hard Euroscepticism and can be thus seen as a manifestation of Euroscepticism. The article concludes that even if the euro discourse of Václav Klaus contains both elements of soft and hard Euroscepticism, an important level of expertise critique towards the euro that can be found in Klaus' discourse can not be explained by Euroscepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with issues of transitional justice in selected Central European countries. The relationship between the mode of democratic transition and the mechanisms and pace of transitional justice processes is discussed. The main focus is on the analysis and comparison of transitional justice issues in three Central European countries - the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The authors conclude that the mode of democratic transition is not as important as other political factors, such as the presence or absence of leftist parties in the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Varying Paths of Transitional Justice: The Cases of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. The paper deals with the issue of transitional justice in selected East-Central European countries. The relation between the mode of democratic transition and the means and pace of transitional judicial processes is discussed. Main attention is paid to the analysis and comparison of transitional justice issues in three Central European countries -- the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. The authors come to the conclusion that the mode of democratic transition is not as important as other political factors such as the presence or absence of leftist parties in government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes and compares Czech and Slovak party politics after 1989. The concept of cleavages is used as a theoretical starting point. The authors point out that although the communist period overshadowed the traditional cleavages dating from the second half of the nineteenth century, it is possible to analyze some politically-based cleavages in the respective party arrangements of the two countries. The main conclusion of the article is as follows: that despite differing trajectories of political development during the 1990s, at the present time, both the Czech and Slovak party systems show great similarities in terms of the prevalence of the socioeconomic cleavage. Socioeconomic cleavage emerged quite early after 1989 in the Czech Republic; in Slovakia the socioeconomic cleavage has become dominant only in recent years. This has contributed to the stabilization of the classic left-right model of political competition and the consolidation of the two countries' party systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]