Martin Bursík elected deputy chairman of the Green Party

Martin Bursík was elected deputy leader of the Green Party on Saturday night after losing the battle for the top post to his main rival, the party’s current leader Ondřej Liška. The two men clashed over the party’s future direction with Martin Bursík criticizing his rival for pulling the party left of centre, instead of striving to regain lost right-wing voters. Ondřej Liška argued there were no potential allies right of centre who would help implement the Green’s policy programme and stressed the need to address the young generation which is generally receptive to green issues. Others elected to the party leadership are Pavla Brady, Matěj Stropnický, Dana Kuchtová, Tomáš Průsa and Eva Tylová. The Greens were relegated to the sidelines of Czech politics after failing to cross the 5 percent threshold needed to win seats in the lower house in the 2010 general elections.