Freedom Union – Democratic Union

Freedom Union–Democratic Union Unie svobody–Demokratická unie
Leader	Jan Černý
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Kozí 916/5, Prague
Ideology	Social liberalism, Liberalism (2002-2005), Libertarianism (2006)
Official colours	Dark green
Website
www.unie.cz
Politics of the Czech Republic Political parties Elections

The Freedom Union–Democratic Union (Czech: Unie Svobody–Demokratická unie, US–DEU) is a small, pro-european liberal party in the Czech Republic. As of 2008, it does not have any seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies and has 1 senator in "Open Democracy" Caucus in the Senate.

The party was founded in 1998 as Freedom Union (Unie Svobody), as a split from the Civic Democratic Party. From 2002 till 2006, it was part of the Czech government, forming a coalition with the Czech Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party. As a part of government, the party started to lose members and support. It suffered a stinging defeat in the 2004 regional councils and European Parliament elections. In the 2006 legislative election it received just 0.3% votes and lost all its seats in the Chamber of Deputies, which led to the resignation of its leader, Pavel Němec. Current leader, Jan Černý, was elected on June 3, 2007.

Election results

• 1998 Chamber of Deputies: 8.6 % - 19 seats
• 1998 Senate: 1 seat
• 2000 Senate: 8 seats
• 2002 Chamber of Deputies: 9 seats (in coalition with KDU–ČSL, 14.3 %)
• 2002 Senate: 1 seat
• 2004 Senate: 1 seat
• 2004 European Parliament: no seats (as part of Union of liberal democrats 1,7 %)
• 2006 Chamber of Deputies: 0.3% - no seats
• 2006 Senate: no seats
• 2008 Senate: no seats

See also

• List of liberal parties
• Liberalism in the Czech lands
• Elections in the Czech Republic

External links

• Freedom Union–Democratic Union official site