The Christian Democratic Party (, KDS) was a

Christian-democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well a ...

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

in the

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

, functional between 1990 (founded shortly after the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

) and 1996. Its first chairman was

Václav Benda Václav Benda (August 8, 1946, Prague – June 2, 1999) was a Czech Roman Catholic activist and intellectual, and mathematician. Under Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, Benda and his wife were rare in that they were devout Roman Catholics among th ...

, the last chairman from 1993-1996 the former Minister of Education Ivan Pilip.

History

The KDS was established 1989/90 by a group of intellectuals and dissidents. The first congress was held in March 1990 and the former dissident

was elected president of the new party. In the first free

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) ** Fourth Czechoslovak Repu ...

elections in June 1990, the party participated as part of the electoral coalition ''Christian Democratic Union'' (together with the

Czechoslovak People's Party Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) ** Fourth Czechoslovak Repu ...

and the Slovak

Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement (, KDH) is a Christian democratic political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and an observer of the Centrist Democrat International The Centrist Democrat International ...

). The coalition won 8.4% of the votes and 20 seats in the

Czech National Council The Czech National Council () was the legislative body of the Czech Republic from 1968, when it was created as a member state of Czechoslovakia, until 1992, when it was legally transformed into the Chamber of Deputies according to the Constitut ...

. In the parliamentary election in 1992, it participated on a common electoral list with the governing Civic Democratic Party. The coalition won 29.7% of the vote and 76 seats in the

. The KDS became part of the first government of

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

along with the Civic Democrats (

ODS ODS may refer to: Computing, Internet and information technology *Files-11 (On-Disk Structure), a DEC filesystem * Office of Digital Strategy, Executive Branch of the White House *OpenDocument Spreadsheet file format * Online dating service * O ...

and ODA) and the

KDU-ČSL KDU-ČSL (In Czech language, Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party; ), often shortened to ("the populars"), is a Christian democracy, Christian democratic list of political parties in the Czec ...

. In 1996, it merged into the Civic Democratic Party.

Election results

* 1990 Czechoslovak House of the People: 5.9% - 9 seats (as part of the Christian Democratic Union) * 1990 Czechoslovak House of Nations: 6.0% - 6 seats (as part of the Christian Democratic Union) * 1990 Czech National Council: 8.4% - 4 seats (as part of the Christian Democratic Union) * 1992 Czechoslovak House of the People: 23.0% - 48 seats (as part of the electoral coalition ODS-KDS) * 1992 Czechoslovak House of Nations: 22.6% - 37 seats (as part of the electoral coalition ODS-KDS) * 1992 Czech National Council: 29.7% - 10 seats (as part of the electoral coalition ODS-KDS)

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in the Czech Republic Political parties established in 1990 Catholic political parties Conservative parties in the Czech Republic Christian democratic parties in the Czech Republic Right-wing parties in the Czech Republic Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) 1990 establishments in Czechoslovakia 1996 disestablishments in the Czech Republic Political parties disestablished in 1996

History

Election results

See also

References