TOP 09 (, ) is a

liberal-conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...

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 ...

, led by

Markéta Pekarová Adamová Markéta Pekarová Adamová (born 2 October 1984) is a Czech Republic, Czech politician who is the President of the Chamber of Deputies (Czech Republic), President of the Chamber of Deputies since 2021 and leader of TOP 09 since 2019. She has bee ...

. 14 of its members sit 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 Bourb ...

, and two of them are MEPs.

History

Foundation and participation in government

The party was founded on 11 June 2009 by

Miroslav Kalousek Miroslav Kalousek (born 17 December 1960) is a Czech politician, former leader of KDU-ČSL and TOP 09, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1998 until his resignation in 2021. He served twice as Finance Minister in the cabinets of Mir ...

who left the

Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Ch ...

. Its first leader was

Karel Schwarzenberg Karel Schwarzenberg (, 10 December 1937 – 12 November 2023) was a Czech politician, diplomat and statesman who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Czech Republic), Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 2007 to 2009 and ...

, who had previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Topolánek cabinet from January 2007 to March 2009, having been nominated by the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

for the post, and who had been elected to the Senate in 2004 as nominee of the

Freedom Union – Democratic Union The Freedom Union–Democratic Union (, US–DEU) was a small pro-European liberal political party in the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2011. The Freedom Union was founded in January 1998 by former members of the Civic Democratic Party who were u ...

(US-DEU) and

Civic Democratic Alliance The Civic Democratic Alliance (, ODA) was a conservative-liberal political party in the Czech Republic, active between 1989 (founded shortly after the Velvet revolution) and 2007. The ODA was part of government coalitions until 1997 and partic ...

(ODA) parties. Karel Schwarzenberg

In the 2010 parliament elections on 28–29 May 2010, TOP 09 received 16.7% of the vote and 41 seats, becoming the third largest party. The party joined the Nečas cabinet, forming a coalition with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and Public Affairs (VV). In September 2010 TOP 09 applied to join the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

had already officially participated in two EPP summits (15 September and 16 December 2010). On 10 February 2011 TOP 09 was granted permission to join the EPP. In the 2013 legislative election on 25–26 October 2013, TOP 09 won 12% of the vote and 26 seats. The party became part of the parliamentary opposition to the Sobotka cabinet.

Opposition and cooperation with STAN and ODS

In the 2014 European elections on 24 and 25 May 2014, TOP 09 reached second place nationally with 15.95% of the vote, electing 4 MEPs. Karel Schwarzenberg left the position of leader in 2015. He was replaced by

afterwards. In March 2016, Karel Tureček left the party and joined

ANO 2011 ANO (), registered as ANO 2011, is a right-wing populist political party in the Czech Republic, led by businessman Andrej Babiš, who served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. Formed in 2011, the party finished second i ...

, which left TOP 09 with 25 MPs. In May 2016, Pavol Lukša, one of founders of TOP 09, left the party and established a new party, Good Choice. The

2016 Czech regional elections Elections to regional councils in the Czech Republic in 13 regions (except Prague) were held on 7 and 8 October 2016. In one third of constituencies, the elections were combined with Czech Senate elections. Also, several municipal referendums ...

were a major loss for TOP 09. The party gained only 19 seats and 3.4% of the vote. Miroslav Kalousek then considered resigning, but decided to remain the party’s leader. In January 2017, TOP 09 introduced a new program called Vision 2030, in which it declared intentions to adopt the

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

, implement electronical voting, and increase health standards in Czechia to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

's level. TOP 09 also wanted to shorten the working week to 4 days. Miroslav Kalousek said he believed that TOP 09 would get over 10% in the upcoming legislative election even though recent opinion polls indicated that TOP 09 might not reach the 5% threshold. Ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections, TOP 09 was endorsed by The

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

, Conservative Party,

Club of Committed Non-Party Members The Club of Committed Non-Party Members (in Czech ''Klub angažovaných nestraníků'', ''KAN'') is a small liberal conservative party in the Czech Republic co-founded by Rudolf Battěk. History The party was founded during the Prague Spring in ...

and

Liberal-Environmental Party Liberal Environmental Party (, LES) is a green-liberal political party in the Czech Republic. It was established by Martin Bursík as a split from Green Party. The party is pro-European and supports Václav Havel's legacy. History The LES parti ...

. The party eventually received 5.3% of the vote, gaining 7 seats.

Jiří Pospíšil Jiří Pospíšil (born 24 November 1975) is a Czech Republic, Czech politician, who was leader of TOP 09 from November 2017 until November 2019. As a deputy for the Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic), Civic Democratic Party, Pospíšil se ...

became the new leader after the election. In the next year municipal elections TOP 09 got only 1.1 per cent of the vote nationally. The best performance for the party was in the Prague City council elections, following which it joined a coalition with the

Czech Pirate Party The Czech Pirate Party ( ) often known simply as the Pirates (''Piráti'' ) is a Liberalism, liberal Progressivism, progressive List of political parties in the Czech Republic, political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2009. The party was ...

and Prague Together. In November, 2019,

was elected party’s leader. In late 2020, TOP 09 formed an electoral alliance with

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 ...

and

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 ...

called

SPOLU Spolu (, stylized as SPOLU) is a Czech centre-right political alliance composed of the Civic Democratic Party, KDU-ČSL, and TOP 09. It forms the current Czech government, in coalition with the Mayors and Independents. Initially formed for the ...

, to run in the 2021 elections. The alliance won the popular vote and formed a coalition with the

Pirates and Mayors Pirates and Mayors (, PirStan) was a liberal progressive centrist political alliance in the Czech Republic, formed for the 2021 legislative election, consisting of the Czech Pirate Party (Piráti) and Mayors and Independents (STAN). As of th ...

alliance. As a result of agreements made to form these alliances, TOP 09 leader

became President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. On 20 November 2021 Pekarová Adamová was reelected in a TOP 09 leadership election, with 163 out of 176 votes, being the only candidate. On 11 November 2023 Pekarová Adamová was reelected in a TOP 09 leadership election, with 142 out of 177 votes, being the only candidate.

Ideology

TOP 09 is characterised most prominently by its

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...

and its

pro-Europeanism Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Pol ...

, being firmly in favour of

European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

. Generally, the party is considered to lean towards both liberal and conservative strains of right-of-centre thought, gradually becoming increasingly liberal compared to its official stance of conservatism.

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

Presidential

European Parliament

Regional councils

Local elections

Prague City Assembly

Leaders

(2009–2015) *

(2015–2017) *

(2017–2019) *

(Since 2019)

Symbols

TOP 09 Teillogo.svg, Party logo 2009–2017 TOP 09 logo.svg, Party logo 2017–2021 Logo of the TOP 09 (2021).svg, Party logo 2021–present

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Top 09 Political parties established in 2009 Liberal parties in the Czech Republic Liberal conservative parties in the Czech Republic Christian democratic parties in the Czech Republic Member parties of the European People's Party Pro-European political parties in the Czech Republic KDU-ČSL breakaway groups 2009 establishments in the Czech Republic