Kateřina Konečná leaves Czech Communist Party after Patriots move

MEP Kateřina Konečná is leaving the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), of which she has been a member for 21 years. She said she did not want to harm the party after the scandal over her joining the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament. The news agency ČTK reported this, citing Raun.

Konečná's own explanation for leaving

She said that at an executive committee meeting she told party members she would make their decision easier. Konečná wants to make sure that the “vigilante justice” unleashed, as she put it, by hapless KSČM functionaries does not damage the whole party. She says she has no intention of criticizing the KSČM. She also accused the functionaries of trying to cover up their own failure in every election.

According to Raun, Konečná does not plan to join another party. He said the MEP will continue to defend the KSČM's program in the European Parliament and work closely with the party. At the same time, she does not want her membership to play into the hands of those who care not about the KSČM's electoral success but about “interests that are hard to explain rationally.”

Why the party was outraged

Konečná had earlier announced that she was joining the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament. Many KSČM members called it a betrayal. The Communist Youth Union condemned the decision sharply, calling it “a slap in the face not only to all of the KSČM's traditional allies in Europe, but to all honest communists in our country.”

Konečná herself defended the decision. In her view, the Czech Republic needs an “authentic left,” which, instead of staying fragmented and clinging to the dogmas of the past, should unite and “retake the exam” after the failure of the Enough! coalition. She explained her choice of a nationalist group, whose members include, for example, MEPs from ANO, by an internal analysis of votes in the European Parliament. According to its findings, the Enough! coalition's program overlaps most closely with that of the Patriots for Europe group.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz