KDU-ČSL (In Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party; ), often shortened to lidovci ("the popular ones"), 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, KDU-ČSL won 7.2% of the vote and 13 out of 200 seats. However, 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, thus becoming the first party ever to return to the Chamber of Deputies after previously dropping out.

History

After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Šrámek served as head of Czechoslovak government in exile (in the United Kingdom). After 1945, ČSL was part of the national unity government, forming its most right-wing section. On 12 April 2017, KDU-ČSL signed an agreement with STAN to participate in 2017 legislative election as a coalition. Coalition needed to get more 10% of votes get over threshold. The coalition disintegrated before the election, thus the party went into the elections standalone, receiving 5.8% of votes. In March 2019 the party was officially renamed to KDU-ČSL, its common abbreviation and Marek Výborný became a new party leader. After the death of his wife announced Marek Výborný in November 2019 his resignation for personal reasons.

Membership

KDU-ČSL had 27,662 Members in 2015 which is the second largest member base of any party in the Czech Republic. The number has been decreasing since the 1990s when the party had 100,000 Members. It is caused by high average age of members.

Party strongholds

KDU-ČSL is known to have very strong electoral core concentrated primarily in South Moravia. The party has very stable electoral support thanks to the rural voters in Moravia and has managed to gain seats in the Chamber of Deputies during every election cycle in the Czech Republic since 1990 with the exception of 2010.

Leaders

Name of the party over time

Symbols

KDU-ČSL had many symbols through history, with the current logo depicting a Christian cross on a linden leaf.

Logos

Election results

Czechoslovakia wide elections

Legislative elections

Devolved assembly elections

Czech assembly elections

Slovak assembly elections

Czech Republic wide elections

Legislative elections

Senate elections

Presidential

European Parliament

Local elections

Regional elections

2020 Czech regional election results

Czech

English