Parties of the Right in East Central Europe

When the repressive welfare states of ‘‘really existing socialism’’ collapsed more than a decade ago, it seemed that a new era was about to begin in the eastern part of Europe for parties of the right. The programmatic offerings of the left had little that was attractive for people between the Baltic, the Adriatic and the Black Sea. Inefficient economic dirigisme and monocentric political rule had just about discredited everything associated with the words ‘‘socialist, ‘‘social democratic’’ or ‘‘left’’. Added to this was the fact that left-oriented parties and politicians that really wanted a new start and that had, in many cases, opposed the old state-socialist regimes, were confronting real difficulties. They were in the shadow of the post-Communist successor organisations that were closing rank and were soon to dominate what remained of the left segment of the political landscape. Thus the fate of the left in East Central Europe appeared to be sealed for the foreseeable future. The only alternative to the right were the successor organisations of the old state parties. But the long-term marginalisation of the left didn’t happen, nor did we witness a long-term hegemony of the parties of the right. Frustrated by the course of socio-economic transformation and embittered by the triumphalism of the new elites, the political pendulum swung back rapidly and soon we saw parties of the left in power in a number of countries. But these parties were not in a position to formulate an alternative social project, nor were they able to bring about a fundamental change of direction on the social front. The highly volatile electorate in the new democracies of Eastern Central and South-Eastern Europe then frequently swung away from the left and returned parties of the right to power. In this article, I will restrict myself to those countries that joined the European Union in May 2004. And in those countries, the frequent swings from left to right have demonstrated some of the strengths and weaknesses of right-wing parties in the eastern half of the continent. They bring to light the specific national contexts and strategies of conservative parties of a nationalist or Christian orientation

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