Crisis over Czechoslovakia

Parliamentary Elections in inter-war Czechoslovakia

During the two decades following its formation in 1918, Czechoslovakia remained a parliamentary democracy with regular elections, but the political and ethnic fault-lines were clearly evident from the outset. The governing coalitions were mainly drawn from the Czechoslovak parties, principally the first five (or "petka" in Czech) given in the table, though, at times, some "activist" German parties also participated in government. The Communists remained in opposition throughout as did the Slovak Populists and German nationalist and Nazi/SdP parties. The surge in support for Henlein's Sudeten German Party (SdP) in the 1935 election, not only resulted in the ending of German participation in government, but also precipitated the crisis ultimately resulting in the Munich Agreement.

Chamber of Deputies

  Percentage of total vote
  1920 1925 1929 1935
Czechoslovak parties (petka):  
Agrarians 13.6   13.7   15.0   14.3  
Social Democrats 25.7* 8.9   13.0   12.6  
National Socialists 8.1   8.6   10.4   9.2  
Populists 7.5   9.7   8.4   7.5  
National Democrats 6.2   4.0   4.9   5.6  
Small Traders 2.0   4.0   3.9   5.4  
 
Communists ---   13.2   10.2   10.3  
 
Other Parties (nationalities):  
Slovak Populists 3.8   6.9   5.7   6.9  
German Nationalists 5.3* 3.4   2.5  --- 
German Nazi/SdP (Henlein) --- 2.4   2.8   15.2*
German Social Democrats 11.1   5.8   6.9   3.6  
German Christian Socialists 3.5   4.4   4.7   2.0  
German Agrarians 3.9   8.0* 5.4   1.7  
Hungarian Nationalists 2.2   1.4   3.5   3.5  
 
others 7.1   5.6   2.7   2.2  

* Figures not directly comparable with those in other elections.

[Source: J Rothschild, East Central Europe between the Two World Wars (Seattle, 1974), pp. 102, 110, 116, 126.]

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