The Czech Republic is a unitary parliamentary republic, in which the president is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the Government of the Czech Republic, which reports to the Chamber of Deputies. The legislature is exercised by the Parliament. The Czech Parliament is bicameral: the upper house of the Parliament is the Senate, and the lower house is the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate consists of 81 members who are elected for six years. The Chamber of Deputies consists of 200 members who are elected for four years. The judiciary system is topped by the trio of the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court.
Social Democracy, known as the Czech Social Democratic Party until 10 June 2023, is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. Sitting on the centre-left of the political spectrum and holding pro-European views, it is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International, and the Progressive Alliance. Masaryk Democratic Academy is the party-affiliated's think tank.
The Czech Republic has offered registered partnerships for same-sex couples since 1 July 2006. Registered partnerships grant several of the rights of marriage, including inheritance, the right to declare a same-sex partner as next of kin, hospital visitation rights, jail and prison visitation rights, spousal privilege, and alimony rights, but do not allow joint adoption, widow's pension, or joint property rights. The registered partnership law was passed in March 2006 and went into effect on 1 July 2006. The country also grants unregistered cohabitation status to "persons living in a common household" that gives couples inheritance and succession rights in housing.
The Senate, literally "Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic", is the upper house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The seat of the Senate is Wallenstein Palace in Prague.
Relations between Israel and the Czech Republic, and its predecessor state Czechoslovakia, have varied widely over time.
Bohuslav Sobotka is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from January 2014 to December 2017 and Leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from 2010 until his resignation in June 2017. He was Member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1996 to 2018. Sobotka also served as minister of Finance from 2002 to 2006.
Early parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic on 25 and 26 October 2013, seven months before the constitutional expiry of the elected parliament's four-year legislative term.
Indirect presidential elections were held in the Czech Republic in January and February 2003 to elect a new President. The Parliament of the Czech Republic failed to elect a candidate on the first two ballots on the 15 and 24 January. However, on the third round of the third ballot on 28 February, Václav Klaus was elected.
Parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic on 20 and 21 October 2017. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected and Andrej Babiš of ANO 2011, also the leader of the resultant government, became the Prime Minister. The coalition government following the 2013 parliamentary elections consisted of the two largest parties: the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, and ANO 2011 (ANO), led by former Finance Minister and businessman Andrej Babiš, alongside the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL). The largest opposition party was the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), followed by centre-right parties TOP 09 and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS).
Andrej Babiš is a Czech politician and businessman who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. Babiš previously served as the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister from 2014 to 2017 in Bohuslav Sobotka's Cabinet. He has been the founding leader of the political party ANO 2011 since 2012. Babiš lost his presidential bid in the 2023 election to Petr Pavel.
ANO 2011, often shortened to simply ANO, the initials meaning Action of Dissatisfied Citizens, is a populist political party in the Czech Republic. The party was founded by Andrej Babiš. ANO has been described as centrist by some sources and as centre-right by others.
Martin Stropnický is a Czech politician and diplomat who served as the minister of Foreign Affairs from December 2017 to June 2018, and was previously minister of Defence from 2014 to 2017. From 2 January 1998 to 22 July 1998 he also served as the minister of Culture. Before entering politics, he was an actor, songwriter, author and director.
Parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic on 8 and 9 October 2021. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected, with the leader of the resulting government to become the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Following the 2017 parliamentary elections, the country had been ruled by a minority government consisting of ANO 2011 (ANO), led by prime minister Andrej Babiš, and the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), led by interior minister Jan Hamáček, with confidence and supply support from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) until April 2021. The largest opposition party was the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), followed by the Czech Pirate Party. Other parties in the Chamber of Deputies included SPD, TOP 09, STAN, and KDU-ČSL.
A Czech government crisis began in May 2017, as a result of suspicions that the Minister of Finance, Andrej Babiš, also the leader of ANO 2011, a partner in the ruling coalition, had evaded taxes related to his business activities.
The first cabinet of Andrej Babiš was the governing body of the Czech Republic from 13 December 2017 until it was succeeded by the second cabinet of Andrej Babiš on 27 June 2018. Andrej Babiš was designated Prime Minister by President Miloš Zeman on 6 December 2017. The cabinet was appointed on 13 December 2017. It consisted of 14 ministers.
From 21 May 2018 to 14 June 2018 the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) held a referendum to determine whether it should join the minority government of Andrej Babiš with potential confidence and supply from the Communist Party.
The second cabinet of Andrej Babiš was a centre-left to centre-right minority coalition government in the Czech Republic, consisting of ANO 2011, a centre-right populist political movement, and the centre-left Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). The coalition received external support from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM). The head of government was Andrej Babiš, leader of ANO.
The Czech political crisis in 2018 started when Seznam News published an interview with Andrej Babiš Jr., son of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. Babiš Jr. stated, that his father's people kidnapped him in Crimea and kept him there.
Milion chvilek pro demokracii is a Czech political organisation, which has organized protests and demonstrations against the government of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Its initial goal was a challenge to get one million signatures in support of Babiš's resignation, in protest at his staying in office while the subject of a police investigation, and his previous activities as an operative of the State Security services (STB) under the former communist regime.
Roman Prymula is a Czech physician, professor of epidemiology, and a retired army colonel.
