KDU-ČSL

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Expand Czech Template:Infobox political party KDU-ČSL (In Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Langx), often shortened to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("the populars"), is a Christian democratic<ref name="Nordsieck">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Magone2010"/> political party in the Czech Republic, led by Marek Výborný. The party has taken part in most of the Czech government coalitions since 1990, and has been represented in every parliament except for the 6th Czech parliament (2010-2013). It currently forms part of the Cabinet of Petr Fiala, as part of the Spolu electoral alliance.

History

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the party has participated in almost every Czech government. In the June 2006 legislative election, KDU-ČSL won 7.2% of the vote and 13 out of 200 seats. However, in the 2010 election, its vote share dropped to 4.4%, and the party lost all of its seats. The party regained its parliamentary representation in the 2013 legislative election, winning 14 seats in the new parliament,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> thus becoming the first party ever to return to the Chamber of Deputies after previously dropping out.

In 2015, the KDU-ČSL leadership established a think tank, the Institute for Christian Democratic Politics (Institut pro křesťansko-demokratickou politiku), to promote Christian Democratic political ideas.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The foundation's headquarters are located in the party's headquarters in Palác Charitas in Prague.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="ČT24 2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The coalition disintegrated before the election,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> thus the party went into the elections standalone, receiving 5.8% of votes.

In March 2019 the party was officially renamed to its common abbreviation, KDU-ČSL, and Marek Výborný became the new party leader.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After the death of his wife, Výborný announced his resignation in November 2019 for personal reasons.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Membership

KDU-ČSL had 27,662 Members in 2015, the second largest member base of any party in the Czech Republic. The number has been decreasing since the 1990s when the party had 100,000 members.<ref name="member base">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

1991	1992	1999	2008	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2019
95,435	88,000	60,000	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || 33,000 || 29,976 || 28,541 || 27,662<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || 26,420<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || 21,870

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Names over time

File:Karlovo náměstí, zastávka Moráň, budova KDU-ČSL.jpg

Headquarters of KDU ČSL, Charitas Palace in Prague

• 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.

Leaders

File:Jiří Čunek in 2019.jpg

Ex leader and mayor of Zlín region Jiří Čunek

• Jan Šrámek (1922–1948)
• Alois Petr (1948–1951)
• Josef Plojhar (1951–1968)
• Antonín Pospíšil (1968–1973)
• Rostislav Petera (1973–1980)
• František Toman (1980–1981)
• Zbyněk Žalman (1981–1989)
• Josef Bartončík (1989–1990)
• Josef Lux (1990–1998)
• Jan Kasal (1999–2001)
• Cyril Svoboda (2001–2003)
• Miroslav Kalousek (2003–2006)
• Jan Kasal (2006)
• Jiří Čunek (2006–2009)
• Cyril Svoboda (2009–2010)
• Michaela Šojdrová (2010)
• Pavel Bělobrádek (2010–2019)
• Marek Výborný (2019–2020)
• Marian Jurečka (2020–2024)
• Marek Výborný (Since 2024)

Young Populars

File:Young Populars logo.png

Young Populars logo

The party's youth wing, for those aged 15-35, is the Young Populars (Template:Langx, ML), founded in 2012.Template:Cn In June 2021, the Young Christian Democrats (1998–2021) was merged with the Young Populars, to form one single youth wing of the party. Environment Minister Petr Hladík was president of ML from 2012–2015.Template:Cn

Symbols

KDU-ČSL had many symbols through history, with the current logo depicting a Christian cross on a linden leaf.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Logos

• Historical logo of the Czechoslovak People's Party.svg

  Party symbol, 1930s

• Czechoslovak People's Party historical logo.svg

  Party logo, 1945–1992

• KDU-CSL Logo Alt.png

  Party logo, 1992–2006

• KDU-CSL Logo.jpg

  Party logo, 2006–2012

• KDU-CSL Logo 2012.svg

  Current logo, since 2012

• KDU-ČSL Lidovci.svg

  Electoral logo, 2024

Election results

Czechoslovakia wide elections

Legislative elections

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

Devolved assembly elections

Czech assembly elections

Date	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position
		#	%	#	±	Size
1968	Template:Small			Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 25	3rd	Bloc
1971				Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 10	2nd	Bloc
1976				Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1	3rd	Bloc
1981				Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0	2nd	Bloc
1986				Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0	2nd	Bloc
1990	Josef Bartončík	607,134	8.42	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 6	4th	Coalition
1992	Josef Lux	406,341	6.28	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 5	5th	Coalition

Slovak assembly elections

Date	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position
		#	%	#	±	Size
1928	Martin Mičura	43,689	3.31	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 2	8th	–
1935	Martin Mičura	–	3.0	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1	8th	–

Czech Republic wide elections

Legislative elections

Date	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position
		#	%	#	±	Size
1996	Josef Lux	489,349	8.08	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 3	4thTemplate:Increase	Template:Yes2
1998	Josef Lux	537,013	8.99	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 2	4th	Template:No2
2002	Cyril Svoboda	680,670	14.27	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 11	4th	Template:Yes2
	Part of Coalition, which won 31 seats in total
2006	Miroslav Kalousek	386,706	7.23	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 18	4th	Template:Yes2
2010	Cyril Svoboda	229,717	4.39	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 13	6thTemplate:Decrease	No seats
2013	Pavel Bělobrádek	336.970	6.78	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 14	7thTemplate:Decrease	Template:Yes2
2017	Pavel Bělobrádek	293,643	5.80	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 4	7th	Template:No2
2021	Marian Jurečka	1,493,701	27.79	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 13	2nd	Template:Yes2
	Part of Spolu coalition, which won 71 seats in total

Senate elections

Election	First round			Second round			Seats gained
	Votes	%	Places*	Votes	%	Places*
1996**	274,316	9.9	4th	247,819	10.7	3rd	Template:Composition bar
1998***	255,785	26.6	2nd	166,483	31.0	2nd	Template:Composition bar
2000	121,355	14.1	4th	137,515	24.4	2nd	Template:Composition bar
2002	58,858	8.8	4th	47,049	5.7	4th	Template:Composition bar
2004	97,956	13.5	3rd	54,501	11.4	3rd	Template:Composition bar
2006	125,388	11.8	4th	59,603	10.4	3rd	Template:Composition bar
2008	82,870	7.9	-	42,225	5.13	-	Template:Composition bar
2010	87,182	7.6	4th	42,990	6.32	4th	Template:Composition bar
2012	61,006	6.94	4th	14,995	2.92	4th	Template:Composition bar
2014	84,328	8.21	5th	77,103	16.27	2nd	Template:Composition bar
2016	74,709	8.48	5th	78,448	18.50	2nd	Template:Composition bar
2018	99,383	9.12	4th	34,833	8.33	5th	Template:Composition bar
2020	82,814	8.30	4th	65,397	14.47	3rd	Template:Composition bar
2022	120,972	10.87	3rd	74,696	15.57	3rd	Template:Composition bar
2024	46,518	5.86	4th	15,635	4.00	5th	Template:Composition bar

^* 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

Indirect Election	Candidate		First round result			Second round result			Third round result
			Votes	%Votes	Result	Votes	%Votes	Result	Votes	%Votes	Result
1993	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Václav Havel	109	63.37	Template:Yes2	—
1998	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Václav Havel	130	70.65	Template:Depends	146	52.3	Template:Yes2	—
2003	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	(Petr Pithart) Jan Sokol	128	46.55	Template:Depends	129	48.13	Template:Depends	124	46.6	Template:No2
2008	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Václav Klaus<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>	141	50.90	Template:Depends	141	52.81	Template:Depends	141	55.95	Template:Yes2

Direct Election	Candidate		First round result			Second round result
			Votes	%Votes	Result	Votes	%Votes	Result
2013	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Zuzana Roithová	255,045	4.95	6th	supported Karel Schwarzenberg
2018	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Jiří Drahoš	1,369,601	26.60	Template:Depends	2,701,206	48.63	Template:No2
2023Template:Efn	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Petr Pavel	1,975,056	35.40	Template:Depends	3,358,926	58.33	Template:Yes
	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Danuše Nerudová	777,080	13.93	Template:No	supported Petr Pavel
	style="background-color: Template:Party color" width="2px"|	Pavel Fischer	376,705	6.75	Template:No	supported Petr Pavel

European Parliament

Election	List leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
2004	Zuzana Roithová	223,383	9.57 (#4)	Template:Composition bar	New	EPP-ED
2009		180,451	7.64 (#4)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0	EPP
2014	Pavel Svoboda	150,792	9.95 (#5)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 1
2019		171,723	7.24 (#6)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1
2024Template:Efn	Alexandr Vondra	661,250	22.27 (#2)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1

Local elections

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

Regional elections

Year	Vote	Vote %	Seats	Places
2000	537,012	22.86	Template:Composition bar	2nd
2004	226,016Template:Decrease	10.67Template:Decrease	Template:Composition bar	4thTemplate:Decrease
2008	193,911Template:Decrease	6.65Template:Decrease	Template:Composition bar	4thTemplate:Steady
2012	261,724Template:Increase	9.87Template:Increase	Template:Composition bar	4thTemplate:Steady
2016	159,610Template:Decrease	6.30Template:Decrease	Template:Composition bar	5thTemplate:Decrease
2020	252,598Template:Increase	9.12Template:Increase	Template:Composition bar	5thTemplate:Decrease

2020 Czech regional election results

Region<ref>Czech Statistical Office</ref>	Coalition partner	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	Seats			Governance<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
				#	±	Position
Central Bohemian	STAN	92,903	22.21	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 2	Template:Increase 5th	Template:Yes
South Bohemian	TOP 09	20,798	10.45	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady	Template:Decrease 6th	Template:Yes
Plzeň	ADS and Non-Partisians	7,588	4.36	Template:N/A	Template:Decrease 2	Template:Decrease 11th	Template:No
Karlovy Vary	ODS	5,870	7.35	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 1	Template:Increase 8th	Template:Yes
Ústí nad Labem	ODS	24,739	12.37	Template:Composition bar	Template:Increase 1	Template:Increase 8th	Template:Yes
Liberec	TOP 09	5,328	3.83	Template:N/A	Template:Steady	Template:Increase 7th	Template:No
Hradec Králové	VPM and Non-Partisians	14,738	8.32	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady	Template:Decrease 5th	Template:Yes
Pardubice	SNK-ED and Non-Partisians	22,280	13.41	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1	Template:Decrease 5th	Template:Yes
Vysočina	Template:N/A	19,082	11.96	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1	Template:Steady 3rd	Template:Yes
South Moravian	Template:N/A	56,423	15.54	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady	Template:Steady 2nd	Template:Yes
Olomouc	TOP 09 and Greens	34,519	18.43	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1	Template:Steady 4th	Template:Yes
Zlín	Template:N/A	35,782	18.62	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 3	Template:Decrease 2nd	Template:No
Moravian-Silesian	Template:N/A	30,190	9.57	Template:Composition bar	Template:Decrease 1	Template:Steady 4th	Template:Yes

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Official website Template:In lang
• English version of the homepage
• Official homepage of Mladí lidovci Template:In lang