Václav Klaus is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993,he served as the second and last prime minister of the Czech Republic while it was a federal subject of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic,and then as the first prime minister of the newly independent Czech Republic from 1993 to 1998.
Vladimír Špidla is a Czech politician who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from July 2002 to August 2004 and as European Commissioner for Employment,Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities from November 2004 to February 2010. He also served as chief adviser to Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka from 2014 to 2017.
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.
KDU-ČSL,often shortened to lidovci,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.
The Civic Democratic Alliance was a conservative-liberal political party in the Czech Republic,active between 1989 and 2007. The ODA was part of government coalitions until 1997 and participated in transformation of the Czech economy. The party was supported by president Václav Havel who voted for it in 1992 and 1996 election.
The Civic Democratic Party is a conservative and soft Eurosceptic political party in the Czech Republic. The party generally sits centre-right to right-wing on the political spectrum,and holds 34 seats in the Chamber of Deputies,and is the second strongest party by number of seats following the 2021 election. It is the only political party in the Czech Republic that has maintained an uninterrupted representation in the Chamber of Deputies.
The Freedom Union–Democratic Union was a small pro-European liberal party in the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2011.
The Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia,established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The corresponding movement in Slovakia was called Public Against Violence.
The Civic Conservative Party is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Slovakia. It has two seats in the National Council,following the 2020 election. It has also representation at regional and local level.
Cyril Svoboda is a Czech politician,who was leader of the Christian and Democratic Union –Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) in 2001–2003 and 2009–2010,and a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1998–2010. During his political career he held several ministerial positions,including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He founded the Diplomatic Academy in Prague in 2011 and is currently lecturing at several universities in Prague.
Mirek Topolánek is a Czech politician and business manager who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2009 and the leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) from 2002 to 2010. Between 2006 and 2009,Topolánek was the member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) and senator from Ostrava from 1996 until 2004. After leaving the politics in 2010,Topolánek has been active in the electric power industry as a vocal lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry.
Alexandr Vondra is a Czech politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic from 2010 to 2012 under Prime Minister Petr Nečas and has been Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019.
Indirect presidential elections were held in the Czech Republic on 8–9 February 2008,in which Parliament elected the President. The candidates standing for election were the incumbent president Václav Klaus and University of Michigan Professor Jan Švejnar.
Svobodní,until 2019 known as the Party of Free Citizens or the Free Citizens' Party,is a classical liberal and right-libertarian,Eurosceptic political party in the Czech Republic founded in 2009 by Petr Mach,an economist and professor of macroeconomics. Before assuming his position as an MEP,Mach taught economics at VŠFS and VŠEM. The party is led by Libor Vondráček.
The Christian Democratic Party was a Christian-democratic political party in the Czech Republic,functional between 1990 and 1996. Its first chairman was Václav Benda,the last chairman from 1993-1996 the former Minister of Education Ivan Pilip.
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.
Jan Ruml is a Czech politician who was interior minister from 1992 to 1997.
A leadership election for the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) was held in the Czech Republic on 14 December 1997. It followed a political crisis caused by allegations that the party had received illegal donations and was maintaining a secret slush which resulted in fall of the government. Incumbent party leader and Prime Minister Václav Klaus faced Jan Ruml,Klaus won the election and remained as the leader of the ODS,which led to a split in party when a group of ODS members left the party and founded the Freedom Union (US). In some subsequent opinion polls,the Freedom Union polled over 10% of the vote and was expected by some commentators to become the major centre-right party. However,the 1998 elections saw the party receive only 8.6% of vote,while the ODS remained the main right-wing party.
Czech political crisis in 1997–1998 started as a result of irregularities in finances of Civic Democratic Party (ODS). It peaked with so-called Sarajevo atentate,an attempt to remove Václav Klaus from leadership of Civic Democratic Party. The attempt occurred during Klaus' visit in Sarajevo. Crisis led to split in ODS and snap election in 1998.
