Parliamentary Parties
There are currently six parties in the Chamber of Deputies – the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), TOP 09, the Communist Party (KSČM), and Public Affairs (VV), and SNK European Democrats (SNK ED). All except VV have seats in the Senate, as do the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU-ČSL) and Severočeši.cz (S.cz).
Three parties – ČSSD, ODS, and KSČM – have managed to elect members to every Parliament since the Czech Republic's independence. The other two were first elected to the Chamber of Deputies at the 2010 election.
| Party | Representation | Comments | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber | Senate | Regions | Europe | ||||
| Czech Social Democratic Party |
ČSSD | 56 | 41 | 280 | 7 | Major left-wing (social democratic) party. Its chairman was former Czech Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek until he resigned in 2010. | |
| Civic Democratic Party |
ODS | 53 | 25 | 180 | 9 | Liberal conservative, soft eurosceptic party created by the current Czech President Václav Klaus. Its chairman is Petr Nečas. The party is part of Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists. | |
| TOP 09 with the support of Mayors and Independents |
TOP09 | 41 | 5 | 12 | 0 | Coalition of fiscally conservative Tradition Responsibility Prosperity 09 and several local independent movements. Primary agenda of TOP 09 is cutting budget deficit. Leader of TOP 09 is Karel Schwarzenberg. | |
| Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia |
KSČM | 26 | 2 | 114 | 4 | Far-left party, heir of the former ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. It's usually considered as an anti-system party. It has so far not been part of any government coalition since the advent of democracy in the Czech Republic. | |
| Public Affairs |
VV | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Anti-corruption, conservative liberal political party. Public Affairs are quite controversial and are often alleged of populism. | |
| SNK European Democrats |
SNK ED | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Anti-corruption, conservative liberal political party. | |
| Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party |
KDU-ČSL | 0 | 5 | 56 | 2 | Medium sized Conservative and christian democratic party. Traditionally strong in South Moravia. KDU-ČSL left chamber of deputies after legislative election of 2010, after 91 years of continuous presence. | |
| Severočeši.cz |
S.cz | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Cross-spectrum regional party from northern Bohemia. | |
Read more about this topic: Political Parties In The Czech Republic
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“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)