Czech Social Democratic Party

Czech Social Democratic Party Česká strana sociálně demokratická
Leader	Bohuslav Sobotka
Founded	1878
Headquarters	Lidový dům Hybernská 7, Prague
Youth wing	Young Social Democrats
Ideology	Social democracy,
Political position	Centre-left
International affiliation	Socialist International
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
European Parliament group	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Colours	Orange
Chamber of Deputies	56 / 200
Senate	41 / 81
European Parliament	7 / 22
Regional councils	205 / 675
Local councils	18,569 / 62,178
Website
http://www.cssd.cz/
Politics of the Czech Republic Political parties Elections

The Czech Social Democratic Party (Czech: Česká strana sociálně demokratická, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic.

History

The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria (Czech: Sociálně Demokratická strana Českoslovanská v Rakousku) was founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary representing the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament. Its role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that lead to the creation of independent Czechoslovak Republic. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic.

During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organised resistance movements illegally within the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-existing structure and became a member of the National Front. In 1948, after the Communist Party assumed the parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was abolished along with all other non-communist parties. Under the reformist environment in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a Social Democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, when the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, ČSSD has been one of the major political parties in the Czech Republic.

After the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the most seats, but failed to form a coalition government. As a result, the party formed a minority government under party leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had the confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.

The party won the elections of 2002 with 70 of 200 representatives in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Its chairman Vladimír Špidla became the prime minister heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until his resignation in 2004.

The current chairman of the party is Jiří Paroubek since 2006. His predecessor was Stanislav Gross from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005. Gross resigned after a scandal which arose due to his inability to explain the source of financial resources used to pay for his home. Gross's predecessor Vladimír Špidla was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the 2004 European Parliamentary elections.

In the June 2 and 3, 2006 elections, the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate since the centre-right parties (with Green Party) and centre-left parties each had 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.

Following the 2010 legislative elections, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote and became the largest party with 56 seats, but having failed to form a governing coalition, remained in opposition to a coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties.

Overview

Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary:

• 1878–1893 The Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Party in Austria (Sociálně-demokratická strana českoslovanská v Rakousku) – part of Social Democratic Party of Austria
• 1893–1918 The Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Workers' Party (Českoslovanská sociálně demokratická stranu dělnická) – independent party

Czechoslovakia:

• 1918–1938 The Czechoslovak Social Democratic Worker's Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana dělnická) – merged with Slovak Social Democrats. The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1938. After the splitup of Austria-Hungary, the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party in the Republic of Austria split from the main party.
• 1938–1941 The National Labor Party (Národní strana práce) – united left party of Social Democrats and part of Czech National Social Party
• 1945–1948 Czechoslovak Social Democracy (Československá sociální demokracie)
• 1948–1989 – merged with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, concurrently existed as an exile party with its headquarters in London
• 1990–1993 Czechoslovak Social Democracy (Československá sociální demokracie)

Czech Republic:

• since 1993 Czech Social Democratic Party (Česká strana sociálně demokratická)

Election results

National Assembly of the Czechoslovak republic

Election	Votes	Share of votes in %	Seats obtained
1920	1 590 520	25.7	74
1925	632 403	8.9	29
1929	963 462	13	39
1935	1 032 773	12.6	38
1946	855 771	12	37

Czech National council/Chamber of deputies of the Czech republic

Election	Votes	Share of votes in %	Seats obtained	Place	In government
1990	296 165	4.1	0	6th	No
1992	422 736	6.53	16	3rd	No
1996	1 602 250	26.4	61	2nd	No
1998	1 928 660	32.31	74	1st	Yes
2002	1 440 279	30.2	70	1st	Yes
2006	1 728 827	32.32	74	2nd	No
2010	1 155 267	22.08	56	1st	No

Results by regions

Region	1990	1992	1996	1998	2002	2006	2010
Prague	4,65	5,14	18,68	23,44	25,85	23,29	15,17
Central Bohemian	4,83	6,82	25,40	32,70	31,58	30,74	20,52
South Bohemian	3,94	8,03	24,95	31,11	30,33	30,47	20,55
West Bohemian	5,89	8,78	25,71	32,73
Plzeň					30,34	31,69	22,01
Karlovy Vary					29,31	32,73	23,29
North Bohemian	6,92	7,97	28,74	34,71
Ústí nad Labem					29,18	35,46	24,93
Liberec					27,05	29,31	19,40
East Bohemian	5,26	7,20	24,78	29,94
Hradec Králové					27,48	30,14	19,87
Pardubice					29,45	32,95	21,95
Vysočina					31,97	35,35	23,43
South Moravian	1,51	4,56	24,96	31,81	29,90	32,95	23,35
North Moravian	2,87	4,56	34,21	38,98
Olomouc					31,92	35,44	24,47
Zlín					29,06	33,28	21,93
Moravian-Silesian					36,13	40,54	29,13
Czech republic	4,11	6,53	26,44	32,31	30,20	32,32	22,08

Senate election

1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contested

Election	Seats gained	Seats lost	±	Total seats
1996	25	0	+25	25
1998	3	5	-2	23
2000	1	9	-8	15
2002	7	11	-4	11
2004	0	4	-4	7
2006	6	1	+5	12
2007	1	0	+1	13
2008	23	7	+16	29
2010	12	0	+12	41
2011	1	1	0	41
2012	13	6	+7	48

European parliament election

Election	Votes	Share of votes in %	Seats obtained
2004	204 903	8.78	2
2009	528 132	22.39	7

Regional election

Election	Votes	Share of votes in %	Councillors
2000	344 441	14.67	112
2004	297 083	14.03	105
2008	1 044 719	35.86	280
2012	621 961	23.58	205

Local election

Election	Share of votes in %	Councillors
1994	8.7	1 628
1998	17.54	4 259
2002	15.57	4 664
2006	16.61	4 331
2010	19.68	4 584

Chairmen of the Czech Social Democratic Party

Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Workers' Party

• Antonín Němec (1904–1915)
• Bohumír Šmeral (1916–1917)

Czechoslovak Social Democratic Worker's Party

• Antonín Němec (1917–1925)
• Antonín Hampl (1925–1938)

Czechoslovak Social Democracy

• Zdeněk Fierlinger (1945–1947)
• Bohumil Laušman (1947–1948)

Czechoslovak Social Democracy in exile

• Blažej Vilím (1948)
• Václav Majer (1948–1972)
• Vilém Bernard (1972–1989)
• Karel Hrubý

Czechoslovak Social Democracy

• Jiří Horák (1989–1993)

Czech Social Democratic Party

• Miloš Zeman (28 February 1993 – April 2001)
• Vladimír Špidla (April 2001 – 26 June 2004)
• Stanislav Gross (26 June 2004 – 26 April 2005)
  • Bohuslav Sobotka (temporary) (2005–2006)
• Jiří Paroubek (2006–2010)
• Bohuslav Sobotka (2011–present)

See also

• Politics of the Czech Republic
• List of political parties in the Czech Republic
• Elections in the Czech Republic
• Bohumil Laušman

External links

• ČSSD official website
• Party basic data in English