The fall of communism in Czechoslovakia brought significant changes, especially in the socio-political and economic spheres. They were linked to the transition from the dictatorship of the ruling Communist Party to a democratic system. It was the demand for the abolition of the leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) in society, which was enshrined in the Constitution, that was one of the main demands of the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
On Friday, November 29, it will be 35 years since the Federal Assembly abolished the constitutional article on the leading role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the era of political pluralism began.
Article 4 on the leading role of the Communist Party in the state and society was repealed by the deputies of the Federal Assembly at an extraordinary session which met on Wednesday, 29 November 1989. At the same time, they amended Article 6 on the National Front, which, according to the Constitution, brought together the permitted political parties and social organisations, as well as Article 16, according to which cultural policy, education and upbringing were to be conducted in the spirit of the state ideology of scientific communism and Marxism-Leninism.
However, the Slovak communists decided to abolish the leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia before the federal parliament did so. The members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia (ÚV KSS) voted in favour of the proposal at an extraordinary meeting of the ÚV KSS Central Committee held on 26-27 November 1989.
Source: TASR
