In Czech politics, the Blue Team (

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

: ''Modrý tým'') was a members organisation of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), whose purpose, as stated on its website, was to help at ODS meetings, promote right-wing political ideas, promote the team itself, analyse

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...

s, and recruit new members.

History

The Blue Team was founded on 29 April 2009, inspired by similar projects in other countries. It was first used during the 2009 European parliament election campaign, after which

Mirek Topolánek Mirek Topolánek (, born 15 May 1956) is a Czech Republic, Czech politician and business manager who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2009 and the leader of the Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic), Civic Democr ...

stated that the Blue Team helped ODS win the election. During a meeting in May 2010, members of the Blue Team played

airsoft Airsoft, also known as survival game () in Japan where it was popular, is a team sport, team-based shooting sport, shooting game in which participants eliminate opposing players out of play by shooting them with airsoft pellets, spherical plast ...

, prompting

Jaroslav Tvrdík Jaroslav (also written as Yaroslav or Jarosław in other Slavic languages) is a Czech and Slovak first name, pagan in origin. Its feminine form is Jaroslava. There are several possible origins of the name Jaroslav. It is very likely that origin ...

, campaign manager of the

Czech Social Democratic Party Social Democracy (, SOCDEM), known as the Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) until 10 June 2023, is a social democratic political party in the Czech Republic. Sitting on the centre-left of the political spectrum and holding pro-European ...

(ČSSD), to accuse the Blue Team of training commandos to interrupt ČSSD meetings, and compare the Blue Team with the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. ODS responded that Tvrdík's interpretation was "mentally invalid", and the Blue Team sued Tvrdík for slander. On 1 July 2011, a court ordered the ČSSD leadership to apologise for Tvrdík's comments. Other Blue Team activities include helping to clear damage following floods, and the 2013 legislative election campaign.

Jan Zahradil Jan Zahradil (born 20 March 1963) is a Czech politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 to 2024, representing the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), and previously as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1998 to ...

Evžen Tošenovský Evžen Tošenovský (born 26 February 1956) is a Czech Republic, Czech politician. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2009 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic, 2009 European Parliament election recei ...

Edvard Kožušník Edvard Kožušník (born 30 January 1971) is a Czech politician for the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). He served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014 and is the former chief of staff to the president of the Czech Senate, Přemy ...

and other party officials appeared at meetings with members of the team. The Blue Team ceased its activity in 2015, and was replaced by Supporters of ODS.

Membership

Notable members

Tomáš Berdych Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in May 2015. Berdych won 13 ATP Tour singles titles, i ...

Jaromír Jágr Jaromír Jágr (; born 15 February 1972) is a Czech professional ice hockey Winger (ice hockey), right winger and owner of Rytíři Kladno of the Czech Extraliga (ELH). He previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh ...

References

External links

*
Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Team (Czech Politics) Politics of the Czech Republic Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic)

History

Membership

Notable members

See also

References

External links