The SNK European Democrats ( cs, SNK Evropští demokraté) is a political party 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 ...

, led by Zdeňka Marková. The first regular chairperson of this party was

Jana Hybášková Jana Hybášková (born 26 June 1965 in Prague) is a Czech politician and diplomat, who currently serves as the Ambassador of the European Union in Namibia. She served as a Member of the European Parliament for the SNK European Democrats (part o ...

. The party was created in January 2006 by the merger of two Czech political parties – SNK Union of Independents ( cs, SNK sdružení nezávislých), led by the former Foreign Minister Josef Zieleniec, and the

European Democrats The European Democrats were a loose association of conservative political parties in Europe. It was a political group in the European Parliament from 1979 until 1992, when it became a subgroup of the European People's Party–European Democr ...

( cs, Evropští demokraté), led by Jan Kasl, the former Mayor of the City of

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 ...

European Democrats

The European Democrats were founded by Kasl, who resigned from his post as Mayor of Prague in protest at the policies of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Prague's municipal government. In the 2002 municipal elections in Prague, the ED won 15 seats, finishing in second place and becoming the main opposition party. In the 2004 Senate elections, they won one seat out of 27. Kasl remained the party's chairman until the party merged with SNK.

SNK Union of Independents

Cooperation and merger

Although the two parties did not merge until 2006, they had already formed an alliance prior to the 2004 European Parliament elections, winning 11% of the vote with three

MEPs A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, it ...

elected: Josef Zieleniec,

, and Tomáš Zatloukal. Merger negotiations began immediately after the positive results in the 2004 elections, and the result was that the two parties united into one, named the SNK European Democrats. The extended delay to the merger was because according to Czech law, "if two parties unite to form a new party then they would lose their right on the money for their mandates" (950 000

CZK The koruna, or crown, ( sign: Kč; code: CZK, cs, koruna česká) has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's 9 currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to adopt the euro cur ...

per senator per year and around 12 000 000

for all their seats in Prague's municipal government), and these funds were crucial for the forthcoming parliament elections. No formal chairman was appointed; instead, the merged party was led by Josef Zieleniec as the "Political Leader" and Jan Kasl as the "Executive Vice Chairman." The new party hoped to win support from voters who were tired of mainstream political parties. However, there were tensions between former SNK and ED members and a dispute over funding, when

Social Democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...

Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka refused to pay out the money for ED's seats in Prague's municipal government (around 15 000 000

), despite declarations from the Czech Ombudsman, and the Supreme Administrative and Constitutional Court that ED had the right to these funds. In the end the SNK European Democrats' campaign for the 2006 general election was unsuccessful, finishing with 2.1% of the vote and failing to have any representatives elected. Jana Hybášková, elected as an MEP, became the party's first regular chairperson.

Election results

* 2002 Chamber of Deputies: SNK – 2,78% – no seats * 2002 Senate: SNK – 2 seats, ED – no seats * 2002 Prague's municipal government: SNK – no seats, ED – 15 seats * 2004 Senate: SNK – 1 seat, ED – 1 seat * 2004 European Parliament: SNK and ED in coalition – 11,02% – 3 seats * 2006 Chamber of Deputies: 2,1% – no seats * 2006 Senate: no seats * 2008 Senate: no seats

References

External links