KDU-ČSL

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.^[12] 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.^[13] The coalition disintegrated before the election,^[14] 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.^[15] After the death of his wife announced Marek Výborný in November 2019 his resignation for personal reasons.^[16]

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).

Membership

KDU-ČSL had 27,662 Members in 2015 which is the second largest member base of any party in the Czech Republic. The number is decreasing since the 1990s when the party had 100,000 Members. It is caused by high average age of members.^[17]

Party strongholds

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.^[21]

Partners

Notable partners and suborganisations of the KDU-ČSL are:

• Young Populars - youth organisation
• KDU-ČSL Women Association - women's wing
• Institute for Christian Democratic Politics - think-tank
• Economic and entrepreneurial union of KDU-ČSL - entrepreneurs' wing
• European Academy for Democracy - think-tank.
• Institute of Political and Economical Studies - think-tank
• European People's Party - European party
• Centrist Democrat International - political international

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.^[22]

Logos

• 
  Party symbol, 1930's
• 
  Party logo, 1945–1992
• 
  Party logo, 1992–2006
• 
  Party logo, 2006–2012
• 
  Current logo, since 2012

• 1919–1992 The Czechoslovak People's Party (Československá strana lidová) – merger of Moravian-Silesian Christian Social Party in Moravia, Catholic-National Conservative Party in Moravia, Czech Christian Social Party in the Kingdom of Bohemia and Catholic-National Conservative Party in Bohemia, Conservative People's Party.
• 1992–2019 The Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (Křesťanská a demokratická unie – Československá strana lidová)
• Since 2019 KDU-ČSL - after renaming to party' abbreviation.

Czechoslovakia wide elections

Legislative elections

Date	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position
		#	%	#	±	Size
1920	Collective leadership	699,728	11.3	33 / 281	33	2nd	Opposition
1925	Jan Šrámek	691,238	9.7	31 / 300	2	3rd	Coalition
1929	Jan Šrámek	623,340	8.4	25 / 300	6	5th	Coalition
1935	Jan Šrámek	615,804	7.5	22 / 300	3	6th	Coalition
1946	Jan Šrámek	1,111,009	15.7	46 / 300	24	3rd	Coalition
1948	as part of National Front			23 / 300	23	4th	Bloc
1954				20 / 368	3	3rd	Bloc
1960				16 / 300	4	4th	Bloc
1964				20 / 300	4	4th	Bloc
1971				8 / 200	12	4th	Bloc
1976				11 / 200	3	4th	Bloc
1981				13 / 200	2	3rd	Bloc
1986				11 / 200	2	4th	Bloc
1990	Josef Bartončík	629,359	5.9	9 / 150	2	5th	Coalition
1992	Josef Lux	388,122	4.0	7 / 150	2	7th	Coalition

Devolved assembly elections

Czech assembly elections

Date	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position
		#	%	#	±	Size
1968	as part of National Front			16 / 200	16	3rd	Bloc
1971				15 / 200	1	2nd	Bloc
1976				12 / 200	3	3rd	Bloc
1981				14 / 200	2	2nd	Bloc
1986				14 / 200	0	2nd	Bloc
1990	Josef Bartončík	607,134	8.42	20 / 200	6	4th	Coalition
1992	Josef Lux	406,341	6.28	15 / 200	5	5th	Coalition

Slovak assembly elections

Date	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position
		#	%	#	±	Size
1928	Martin Mičura	43,689	3.31	2 / 54	2	8th	–
1935	Martin Mičura	–	3.0	1 / 54	1	8th	–

Czech Republic wide elections

Legislative elections

Date	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position
		#	%	#	±	Size
1996	Josef Lux	489,349	8.08	18 / 200	3	4th	ODS–KDU-ČSL–ODA
1998	Josef Lux	537,013	8.99	20 / 200	2	4th	Opposition
2002	Cyril Svoboda	680,670	14.27	22 / 200	11	4th	ČSSD–KDU-ČSL–US-DEU
	Part of Coalition, which won 31 seats in total
2006	Miroslav Kalousek	386,706	7.23	13 / 200	18	4th	ODS–KDU-ČSL–SZ
2010	Cyril Svoboda	229,717	4.39	0 / 200	13	6th	No seats
2013	Pavel Bělobrádek	336.970	6.78	14 / 200	14	7th	ČSSD–ANO–KDU-ČSL
2017	Pavel Bělobrádek	293,643	5.80	10 / 200	4	7th	Opposition
2021	Marian Jurečka	1,493,701	27.79	23 / 200	13	2nd	SPOLU – PirStan
	Part of SPOLU coalition, which won 71 seats in total

Senate elections

^* Places are by number of votes gained.
^** The whole Senate was elected. Only one third of Senate was elected in all subsequent elections.
^***Participated as Part of Four-Coalition

Presidential

European Parliament

Election	Votes	Share of votes in %	Seats obtained	Place
2004	223,383	9.57	2 / 24	4th
2009	180,451	7.64	2 / 22	4th
2014	150,792	9.95	3 / 21	5th
2019	171,723	7.24	2 / 21	6th

Local elections

Year	Vote	Vote %	Seats
1990	8,845,562	11,5	8,083
1994	9,260,542	7.23	7,616
1998	7,206,346	11.18	7,119
2002	7,728,402	9.58	6,013
2006	6,263,980	5.76	5,049
2010	4,938,960	5.47	3,738
2014	4,865,956	4.91	3,792
2018	5,599,336	5.02	3,633

Regional elections

Year	Vote	Vote %	Seats	Places
2000	537,012	22.86	72 / 675	2nd
2004	226,016	10.67	84 / 675	4th
2008	193,911	6.65	56 / 675	4th
2012	261,724	9.87	61 / 675	4th
2016	159,610	6.30	61 / 675	5th
2020	252,598	9.12	53 / 675	5th

2020 Czech regional election results^[24]

Region	Coalition partner	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	Seats			Governance[25]
				#	±	Position
Central Bohemian	STAN	92,903	22.21	2 / 65	2	5th	STAN–ODS–Pirates–TOP 09+Greens-Voice
South Bohemian	TOP 09	20,798	10.45	4 / 55		6th	ODS–KDU-ČSL+TOP 09–ČSSD–JIH12
Plzeň	ADS and Non-Partisians	7,588	4.36	—	2	11th	ODS+TOP 09–STAN–Pirates
Karlovy Vary	ODS	5,870	7.35	2 / 45	1	8th	STAN+TOP 09-Pirates-ODS+KDU ČSL-Local movements
Ústí nad Labem	ODS	24,739	12.37	1 / 55	1	8th	ANO–ODS–TOP 09+Greens
Liberec	TOP 09	5,328	3.83	—		7th	Mayors for Liberec Region–Pirates–ODS
Hradec Králové	VPM and Non-Partisians	14,738	8.32	4 / 45		5th	ODS+STAN+VČ–KDU-ČSL–Pirates–TOP 09+HDK
Pardubice	SNK-ED and Non-Partisians	22,280	13.41	4 / 45	1	5th	ČSSD–ODS+TOP 09–KDU-ČSL–STAN
Vysočina	—	19,082	11.96	6 / 45	1	3rd	ODS+STO–Pirates–KDU-ČSL–ČSSD–STAN
South Moravian	—	56,423	15.54	11 / 65		2nd	KDU-ČSL–Pirates–ODS–STAN
Olomouc	TOP 09 and Greens	34,519	18.43	6 / 55	1	4th	STAN+Pirates–KDU-ČSL+TOP 09–ODS
Zlín	—	35,782	18.62	9 / 45	3	2nd	ANO–Pirates–ODS–ČSSD
Moravian-Silesian	—	30,190	9.57	7 / 65	1	4th	ANO–ODS+TOP 09–KDU-ČSL–ČSSD

• Brenner, Christiane (2004). Michael Gehler; Wolfram Kaiser (eds.). A Missed Opportunity to Oppose State Socialism?: The People's Party in Chechoslavakia. Routledge. pp. 151–168. ISBN 0-7146-5662-3. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Suppan, Arnold (2004). Catholic People's Parties in East Central Europe: The Bohemian Lands and Slovakia. Vol. 1. Routledge. pp. 178–192. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

Czech

• Official website

English

• English version of the homepage