Obtížné zakotvení lidovců v politickém systému první ČSR. Parlamentní volby v roce 1925 a Československé strana lidová

• Authors: Marek Šmíd

Title variants

EN

The Difficulties Faced by the People’s Party in Finding a Place in the Political System of the First Czechoslovak Republic: The General Election of 1925 and the Czechoslovak People’s Party

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The article discusses the place of the Czechoslovak People’s Party (Československa strana lidova) in the political system of the first Czechoslovak Republic in the 1920s. The author concentrates mainly on the reception of the results of the party in the early elections in autumn 1925, both in the party’s own ranks and amongst its supporters. He does so against the background of the dynamic developments in the party and the changes in the Roman Catholic camp in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s. As part of this he also considers the surmounting of the frictions between Catholic politicians and the Czechoslovak State, which culminated in the reaching of a modus vivendi with the Vatican in 1926. Using records from the Vatican archives, he pays special attention to the diplomatic relations between the Apostolic Nunciature in Prague and the Vatican, and communication between the Holy See and the Czechoslovak Catholic hierarchy and political circles linked with it. The elections in 1925, according to the author, represent a milestone in the history of the Czechoslovak Church in the first half of the twentieth century. The People’s Party, led by Jan Šramek (1870–1956), succeeded in bridging the gap between the Church and society, thus preventing a further loss of Catholic voters, and, by means of elections, opening the way for their participation in a centre-right government, a ‘gentlemen’s coalition’ (panska koalice), which in the autumn of 1926 stabilized politics in the country. Part of the stabilization was the buttressing of the position of the party, which, after the Agrarians and Communists, became the third most powerful party in the republic and the glue holding government coalitions together.

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 559-581

Contributors

author

Marek Šmíd

• Soudobé dějiny, redakce, Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i., Vlašská 9, 118 40 Praha 1, Czech Republic