The Party of Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of the Law

By Dilip -

The Party of Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of the Law (PMPWBL, Czech: Strana Mírného Pokroku v Mezích Zákona (SMPVMZ)) was a satirical political party in Cisleithania (Austro-Hungary), founded by Jaroslav Hašek in 1911. The party campaigned satirically for election to the Imperial Council (Austria). Due to their dual nature as both a political "party" and a political-artistic "action group", it is often extremely difficult to differentiate the reality from the fiction of the SMPVMZ.

The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War

According to the statements of the party leader Hašek, the party was founded in 1904 in the restaurant 'The Golden Liter' in Prague's Vinohrady quarter. Other participants were the writer František Langer and the Prague Technikum official Eduard Drobílek, who came up with the idea and served as treasurer. The party name referred to the controversial Imperial Rescript dated September 12, 1871, in which the Bohemian Landtag, as the representative organ of Czech political power, was asked to contribute to "the contemporary constitutional order, in the spirit of moderation and reconciliation."

The party was most likely founded as a direct response to the overly accommodating behavior of the Czech Social Democratic Party ("Evolution, not Revolution"), whose Prague representatives held events in Zlatý litr. The party slogan abbreviation was "SRK", which officially stood for "Solidarity, Rights and Comradeship" but in practice meant Slivovitz, Rum and Kontusovka.

On April 8, 1911, after the dissolution of the old imperial council, the Austrian Interior Minister set a general election date of June 13, 1911, for the election of deputies to the 21st session of the Austrian House of Deputies that was to begin in mid-July. A few days later at the new party headquarters, the Cow Stall (Czech: Kravin) in the Vinohrady quarter, an executive committee of the reorganized "Party for Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of the Law" announced they would participate in the election with their own candidate. At the same time, they published a manifesto to the Czech people, in which they introduced to party ideology of "Moderate Progress":

 

"The Svatopluk Čech Bridge was not built overnight. First Svatopluk Čech had to be born, become a famous poet, die, then there had to be an urban renewal, and only then was the Svatopluk Čech Bridge built."

The manifesto was even signed by leading Czech social democrats Emanuel Škatula und Bohumír Šmeral, later co-founders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. However the two politicians stood in the election as candidates, and it is highly doubtful they were aware of their signatures in advance.

The platform of the candidate for the Vinorhady election district, Jaroslav Hašek, consisted of seven points:

1/ The reintroduction of slavery.

2/ The nationalization of janitors.("similar to how it is in Russia [...], where every janitor is simultaneously a police informer").

3/ The rehabilitation of animals.

4/ The institutionalization of feeble-minded MPs.

5/ The reintroduction of the Inquisition.

6/ Judicial immunity for priests and the Church ("In cases where a schoolgirl is deflowered by a priest").

7/ The mandatory introduction of alcoholism.

The party hosted numerous speaker evenings, which included Max Brod and Franz Kafka among the spectators. Hašek gave multi-hour campaign speeches "with a great deal of promises and reforms, [he] smeared the other parties, denounced his opponents, everything that befits a decent candidate to such an honorable [position]", according to attendee František Langer. The songwriter Josef Mach wrote a party hymn especially for the campaign:

"A million candidates marching on,/giving false council to clueless people.

They want to get your votes,/every voter will be accepted.

They want thunderous advances,/to violently change the way the world is run,

But we stand up for reasonable progress/with the candidate Mr. Hašek!"


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