History
The Civic Conservative Party was formed by Democratic Party (DS) members of the National Council on 10 November 2001. The DS initially offered the OKS and the Liberal-Democratic Union to run in the 2002 election, on a united list, but then withdrew and endorsed the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union. The OKS attempted to negotiate a joint list with the Christian Democratic Movement and Party of the Hungarian Coalition, but this failed to materialise. Undeterred, the OKS ran alone under the banner 'Call for Slovakia' (Výzva pre Slovensko) and gained 9,422 votes, or 0.32% of the national total.
In the December 2002 local elections, two mayors were elected for OKS. In addition, OKS took 20 deputy seats, or 0.1% of the seats nationwide. In July 2003, it was one of four parties across Europe endorsing the soft eurosceptic Prague Appeal, along with the British Conservative Party, Law and Justice of Poland, and the Czech Civic Democrats.
The OKS supported František Mikloško of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) in the 2004 presidential election. Mikloško was one of the few candidates not being former members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and ended up fifth with 6.51% share of the total vote. In the European election two months later, the party fielded Peter Osuský as its sole candidate. He received 7,016 votes: 1% share of the vote.
In the 2005 regional elections, the party gained three seats: František Šebej and Peter Tatár in Bratislava Region and Katarína Adamicová in Žilina Region. This represented 0.72% share nationwide.
OKS offered to run on the common candidate list with the Christian Democratic Movement in the 2006 parliamentary election. This offer was turned down by the KDH, the Civic Conservatives had to raise 500,000 korún as a fee for the party to participate. In March 2006, OKS member Ondrej Dostál applied to the Constitutional Court, considering the possible unconstitutionality of the election participation fee, saying the fee affects his right to run for office. In the election, former Chairman of the Czechoslovak Constitutional Court Ernest Valko and former Minister of Health Rudolf Zajac appeared on the OKS list. The party obtained 6,262 votes which represented 0.27% share of the total vote.
In the 2009 regional elections, the OKS won four seats, up one from 2005: 3 in Bratislava Region and one in Žilina Region.
Read more about this topic: Civic Conservative Party
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
—Henry Geldzahler (1935–1994)
“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)