NID: CZECHOSLOVAKIA: GOVERNMENT AGREES TO SHARE POWER

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826799
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: November 29, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826799
f I I -I I-I
I -1
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Government Agrees To Share Power
The regime's agreement to demands for a new government independent
of the Communist Party paves the war for free elections and further
political liberalization.
Premier Adamcc, during negotiations yesterday with Civic Forum
leader Vaclav Havel, agreed to form a �broad coalition government"
composed primarily of experts and professionals by Sunday. He
promised to ask the Federal Assembly to drop the constitutional
clause guaranteeing the Communist Party a leading role: to open the
National Front. the Communist-controlled umbrella organization. to
independent groups; and to remove Marxism-Leninism as the basis of
education.
The Communist Party's rank and file is also continuing to press
reforms on the leadership. The Slovak Communist Party purged
several hardliners at an extraordinary plenum on Monday and
called for free elections, an end to the party's leading role, and a
reassessment of the Prague Spring as a "restoration of socialism."
The new reform Communist group, Democratic Forum, has urged
that the extraordinar7ty congress set for January be held sooner.
Comment: The Civic Forum is wasting no time using the new political
mandate it got from the overwhelming popular support for the
general strike to press for sweeping reforms. It almost certainly
considers a technocratic coalition government and the abolition of
the party's leading role just the first steps toward political pluralism
and economic renovation. The Forum's next goal is sure to be to
negotiate a timetable for free elections and to ensure a political
environment conducive to unfettered campaigning
The Communist Pany appears incapable of stopping the rapid
liberalization, particularly because many rank-and-file members are
voicing support for the opposition's demands for pluralism and free
elections. Although some hardliners will continue to resist, party
reformers apparently are preparing for the worst by moving to create
a party that can compete in free elections.
3
IIIPSOCUL
TCS 2976/89
29 November 1989
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826799