Чехия халықтық-демократиялық партиясы

Czech political party

KDU ČSL (In Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party; ), often shortened to lidovci ('the populars'), is a Christian democratic political party in the Czech Republic. The party has taken part in almost every Czech government since 1990. In the June 2006 legislative election, the party won 7.2% of the vote and 13 out of 200 seats; but in the 2010 election, its vote share dropped to 4.4% and they lost all of its seats. The party regained its parliamentary standing in the 2013 legislative election, winning 14 seats in the new parliament, thereby becoming the first party ever to return to the Chamber of Deputies after previously dropping out.

Towards the end of the 19th century Roman Catholics in Bohemia and Moravia joined political movements inside Cisleithanian Austria Hungary. The Christian Social Party was set up in September 1894 in Litomyšl, and the Catholic National Party in Moravia was set up in September 1896 in Přerov. Československá strana lidová (ČSL) was created in January 1919 in Prague, reuniting other Catholic parties, and Jan Šrámek was selected as its chairman. In 1921, ČSL entered the government of Czechoslovakia, and was subsequently part of governing coalitions regardless of political changes. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Šrámek served as head of Czechoslovak government in exile (in the United Kingdom). After 1945, ČSL was part of the national unity government, forming its most right wing section. When the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over all power in February 1948, many ČSL officials were imprisoned. The party lost any real influence and was kept as a de facto puppet of Moscow aligned communists (see National Front). In turn, it was allowed to keep a token presence of ČSL in government until 1989. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 ČSL attempted to shed its compromised figures and policies of the past: this included a change of name in 1992 after the merger with the Christian and Democratic Union (which was a post revolution attempt at more modern political Catholicism trying to emulate the German CDU, but lacking the strength of its traditional counterpart). KDU ČSL was part of the governments of Václav Klaus's Civic Democratic Party (ODS) until its ministers left in autumn 1997 which triggered the government's fall; KDU ČSL was also represented in the caretaker government of Josef Tošovský before the premature elections in 1998. In June 2002 KDU–ČSL went into the elections on a joint ballot with the Freedom Union–Democratic Union (US–DEU) as the "Two Coalition", which was the last remnant of an unsuccessful attempt to unite them with three smaller parties into the "Four Coalition" which would provide an alternative to the practices of the "opposition agreement" of ODS and Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). However it turned out that the KDU–ČSL's traditional voters identified much more strongly with their original party than the whole, unlike US–DEU's liberal city ones, and using preferential votes on evenly split ballots caused that KDU–ČSL gained 22 MPs to US–DEU's 9 even though both parties were of roughly equal strength. They entered the government again by forming a coalition with the winning Czech Social Democratic Party. In 2003 Miroslav Kalousek was elected chairman; unlike his predecessor Cyril Svoboda he represents the right wing of KDU–ČSL favouring cooperation with ODS, which was a source of tension within the coalition. He refused to enter the government both after his election and the government's reconstruction after PM Vladimír Špidla's resignation, and finally on 19 February 2005 asked for the resignation of PM Stanislav Gross after his finance scandal broke out. Gross retaliated by threatening to remove KDU–ČSL from his cabinet; a government crisis ensued. After the 2006 legislative elections and lengthy negotiations caused by stalemated result, the KDU–ČSL formed a government together with the ODS and the Green Party (SZ). Cyril Svoboda became the party chairman on 30 May 2009. In reaction to his election, his predecessor Miroslav Kalousek led a split from the party to form TOP 09, as he considered Svoboda to be too far on the left wing of the party. In the 2010 Chamber of Deputies election, the party's vote dropped to 4.39%, and they lost every one of their seats to other parties. Svoboda resigned as a consequence of the results. In November Pavel Bělobrádek was elected on his stead. The Party returned to the Parliament after 2013 election, becoming the so far only party in the history of Czech republic to achieve a return after defeat in elections. On 12 April 2017, KDU ČSL signed an agreement with STAN to participate in 2017 legislative election as a coalition. Coalition needed to get more 10% of votes get over threshold. The coalition disintegrated before the election, thus the party went into the elections standalone, receiving 5.8% of votes. In March 2019 the party was officially renamed to KDU ČSL, its common abbreviation and Marek Výborný became a new party leader. After the death of his wife announced Marek Výborný in November 2019 his resignation for personal reasons. Tomáš Zdechovský, Jan Bartošek and Marian Jurečka decided then to run for party leader.

KDU–ČSL has a relatively small but stable core voter base of about 6 to 10 percent of the population. It is strongest in the traditionally Catholic rural areas in Moravia. Historically, it was a mass party with about 50,000 members (second after the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia). However, today most members are elderly. Efforts to recruit new voters have been largely unsuccessful, with party membership continuing to decline. Nevertheless, KDU–ČSL has managed to take advantage of the fragmented Czech political party system and make itself a necessary part of any coalition, whether the winning party be left or right wing. In the European Union, KDU–ČSL is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).

KDU ČSL is known to have very strong electoral core concentrated primarily in South Moravia. The party has very stable electoral support thanks to the rural voters in Moravia and has managed to gain seats in the Chamber of Deputies during every election cycle in the Czech Republic since 1990 with the exception of 2010.

The party's patron saint is Saint Wenceslaus, with Saint Wenceslas Chorale being played at party congresses. Members customarily address each other as brothers and sisters. KDU ČSL has had many symbols through history, with the current logo depicting a Christian cross on a linden leaf.

Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1920 Collective leadership 699,728 11.3 33 2nd Opposition 1925 Jan Šrámek 691,238 9.7 2 3rd Coalition 1929 Jan Šrámek 623,340 8.4 6 5th Coalition 1935 Jan Šrámek 615,804 7.5 3 6th Coalition 1946 Jan Šrámek 1,111,009 15.7 24 3rd Coalition 1948 23 4th Bloc 1954 3 3rd Bloc 1960 4 4th Bloc 1964 4 4th Bloc 1971 12 4th Bloc 1976 3 4th Bloc 1981 2 3rd Bloc 1986 2 4th Bloc 1990 Josef Bartončík 629,359 5.9 2 5th Coalition 1992 Josef Lux 388,122 4.0 2 7th Coalition

Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1968 16 3rd Bloc 1971 1 2nd Bloc 1976 3 3rd Bloc 1981 2 2nd Bloc 1986 0 2nd Bloc 1990 Josef Bartončík 607,134 8.42 6 4th Coalition 1992 Josef Lux 406,341 6.28 5 5th Coalition

Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1928 Martin Mičura 43,689 3.31 2 8th – 1935 Martin Mičura – 3.0 1 8th –

Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1996 Josef Lux 489,349 8.08 3 4th 1998 Josef Lux 537,013 8.99 2 4th 2002 Cyril Svoboda 680,670 14.27 11 4th Part of Coalition, which won 31 seats in total 2006 Miroslav Kalousek 386,706 7.23 18 4th 2010 Cyril Svoboda 229,717 4.39 13 6thNo seats 2013 Pavel Bělobrádek 336.970 6.78 14 7th 2017 Pavel Bělobrádek 293,643 5.80 4 7th 2021 Marian Jurečka 1,493,701 27.79 13 2nd Part of SPOLU coalition, which won 71 seats in total

Indirect ElectionCandidateFirst round resultSecond round resultThird round resultVotes%VotesResultVotes%VotesResultVotes%VotesResult1993 Václav Havel 109 63.37 —1998 Václav Havel 130 70.65 146 52.3 — 2003(Petr Pithart)
Jan Sokol 128 46.55 129 48.13 124 46.6 2008 Václav Klaus 141 50.90 141 52.81 141 55.95
Direct ElectionCandidateFirst round resultSecond round resultVotes%VotesResultVotes%VotesResult 2013 Zuzana Roithová 255,045 4.95 6thsupported Karel Schwarzenberg 2018Jiří Drahoš1,369,60126.602,701,20648.632023 Petr Pavel 1,975,056 35.40 3,358,92658.33 Danuše Nerudová 777,080 13.93 supported Petr Pavel Pavel Fischer 376,705 6.75 supported Petr Pavel

Election Votes Share of votes in % Seats obtained Place 2004 223,383 9.57 4th 2009 180,451 7.64 2014 150,792 9.95 2019 171,723 7.24

Year Vote Vote % Seats1990 8,845,562 11,5 8,0831994 9,260,542 7.23 7,6161998 7,206,346 11.18 7,1192002 7,728,402 9.58 6,0132006 6,263,980 5.76 5,0492010 4,938,960 5.47 3,7382014 4,865,956 4.91 3,7922018 5,599,336 5.02 3,633

Year Vote Vote % Seats Places 2000 537,012 22.86 2nd 2004 226,016 10.67 4th 2008 193,911 6.65 4th 2012 261,724 9.87 4th 2016 159,610 6.30 5th 2020 252,598 9.12 5th

RegionCoalition partner# ofoverall votes% ofoverall voteSeatsGovernance # ± Position Central Bohemian STAN 92,903 22.21 2 5th South Bohemian TOP 09 20,798 10.45 6th PlzeňADS and Non Partisians 7,588 4.36 2 11th Karlovy Vary ODS 5,870 7.35 1 8th Ústí nad Labem ODS 24,739 12.37 1 8th Liberec TOP 09 5,328 3.83 7th Hradec Králové VPM and Non Partisians 14,738 8.32 5th Pardubice SNK ED and Non Partisians 22,280 13.41 1 5th Vysočina 19,082 11.96 1 3rd South Moravian 56,423 15.54 2nd Olomouc TOP 09 and Greens 34,519 18.43 1 4th Zlín 35,782 18.62 3 2nd Moravian Silesian 30,190 9.57 1 4th