Freedom and Direct Democracy ( cs, Svoboda a přímá demokracie, SPD) is a

right-wing populist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It is led by

Tomio Okamura is a Czech politician and entrepreneur of Moravian Wallachian, Japanese and Korean ethnicity. He founded the Czech political parties Dawn of Direct Democracy and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD). Since October 2013, he has been a member of th ...

and it holds 20 seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

. It has been described as

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

on the political spectrum. It expresses

opposition to immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...

and it is staunchly Eurosceptic, while in their political program they state their support for

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are repres ...

History

The party was founded in May 2015 by

and Radim Fiala when eight Members of Parliament split from the Dawn of Direct Democracy parliamentary group. As the party was newly-formed in that parliamentary term, these MPs sat as independents until the 2017 Czech legislative election. Following that election, the party now holds 22 seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Freedom and Direct Democracy is named after the European Parliament Eurosceptic political group

Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD²) was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD ...

. The party has links with

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician who ran for the French presidency in 2012, 2017, and 2022. A member of the National Rally (RN; previously the National Front, FN), she served as its ...

's National Front which is a member of the

Europe of Nations and Freedom Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF; french: link=no, Europe des nations et des libertés, ENL) was a political group in the European Parliament launched on 15 June 2015. The group was the smallest within the European Parliament during the eighth ...

, a separate Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament and Marine Le Pen endorsed SPD before the 2017 Czech legislative election. In December 2017, SPD hosted a conference of the

Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom The Identity and Democracy Party (french: link=no, Parti Identité et Démocratie; it, Partito Identità e Democrazia; german: link=no, Identität und Demokratie Partei), abbreviated to ID Party and formerly known as the Movement for a Europe ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, with parties such as the French National Front, Dutch

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( nl, Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) is a nationalist, right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man faction in the House of Representatives, it won nin ...

Freedom Party of Austria The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aus ...

and

Lega Nord Lega Nord (; acronym: LN), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing, federalist, populist and conservative political party in Italy. In the run-up of the 2018 general election, the party was rebranded as (), without changing its offici ...

of Italy. In 2019, following the

European Parliament elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Unti ...

, the SPD entered the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

with two MEPs, who sit with the

Identity and Democracy Identity and Democracy (french: link=no, Identité et démocratie, ID) is a right-wing to far-right political group of the European Parliament, launched on 13 June 2019 for the Ninth European Parliament term. It is composed of nationalist, ri ...

group. In July 2020, SPD MP Tereza Hyťhová defected to become the third MP for the

Tricolour Citizens' Movement The Tricolour Citizens' Movement ( cs, Trikolóra hnutí občanů, Trikolóra) is a hard Eurosceptic, fiscally conservative, and national-conservative political party in the Czech Republic. The founder and the former leader of the movement is ...

. During the

2021 Czech legislative election Legislative elections were held in the Czech Republic on 8 and 9 October 2021. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected, with the leader of the resulting government to become the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Following th ...

, the SPD finished fourth with 20 MPs. On 14 September 2022 MEP Hynek Blaško left SPD due to disagreement with Okamura's leadership of the party.

Policies and ideology

On its website and policy brief, SPD refers to itself as "a patriotic and democratic movement" with a focus on political reform, law and order, direct democracy, entrepreneurship and national sovereignty. It also claims to seek support from ordinary working citizens, small business owners and middle class professionals. The party also wants to reduce state-surveillance, reform the Czech tax system, support

internet freedom Internet freedom is an umbrella term that encompasses digital rights, freedom of information, the right to Internet access, freedom from Internet censorship, and net neutrality. Some believe that Internet freedom is not a human right. They thin ...

and encourage more citizen led participation in national politics. Political commentators have variously described the party as

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

and

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...

in its platform and rhetoric. The party is opposed to Czech membership of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

and calls for the Czech Republic to leave the bloc. The party also wants to pursue a more restrictive immigration policy, particularly towards immigration from Islamic nations, and rejects

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

. It is strongly opposed to illegal immigration and the EU's policy of migrant quotas. The party itself claims that it does not seek to promote hatred towards any race or culture, but argues for the protection of "Judeo-Christian" values and believes that migrant quotas will lead to the "Islamization" of Europe.

Organisation

Membership

often claims that SPD has a membership of thousands of members. In October 2017 he claimed that SPD has 7,000 members, and in November 2017 12,000 members. Doubt has been cast on these figures, with the suggestion that Okamura often conflates numbers of supporters with actual members. It was reported in 2015 that SPD had only 20 members, compared to Okamura's claims of 10,000. In February 2018 the party stated that it had 1,200 members. The party had 1,400 members in July 2018.

Election results

Presidential

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

Local election

European Parliament

Regional election

Prague municipal elections

Representation

Chamber of Deputies

* Party president – Radim Fiala * Vice-chairman – Radek Rozvoral * Jaroslav Bašta *

Oldřich Černý Oldřich Černý (born 1965) is a Czech politician and a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Freedom and Direct Democracy Freedom and Direct Democracy ( cs, Svoboda a přímá demokracie, SPD) is a right-wing populist political party in ...

* Jaroslav Dvořák * Jaroslav Foldyna * Jaroslav Holík * Jan Hrnčíř * Zdeněk Kettner * Jiří Kobza * Radek Koten * Vladimíra Lesenská * Karla Maříková *

* Marie Pošarová * Jan Síla * Karel Sládeček * Lucie Šafránková * Iveta Štefanová * Radovan Vích * Vladimír Zlínský