KDU-ČSL

KDU-ČSL (In Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party; ), often shortened to ("the populars"), is a Christian democratic political party in the Czech Republic, led by Jan Grolich since April 2026. The party has taken part in most of the Czech government coalitions since 1990, and has been represented in every parliament except for the 6th Czech parliament (2010–2013). It currently forms part of the parliamentary opposition, having been elected on the lists of the Spolu electoral alliance.

History After the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy, the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, and the formation of the First Czechoslovak Republic, Jan Šrámek helped unite a number of Catholic political parties to create the Czechoslovak People's Party (ČSL) in 1919. The party remained continuously active throughout the twentieth century. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Šrámek served as head of the Czechoslovak government in exile in the United Kingdom. After 1945, ČSL was part of the national unity government, forming its most right-wing section. It was one of many parties brought together in the National Front, which was initially a tripartisme-style coalition meant to drive out the Nazis, but was permanently used by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) to control political and social activities in the country, especially after the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'etat.

Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the party has participated in almost every Czech government. In the June 2006 parliamentary election, KDU-ČSL won 7.2% of the vote and 13 out of 200 seats. However, in the 2010 election, its vote share dropped to 4.4%, and the party lost all of its seats. The party regained its parliamentary representation in the 2013 parliamentary election, winning 14 seats in the new parliament, thus becoming the first party ever to return to the Chamber of Deputies after previously dropping out.

In 2015, the KDU-ČSL leadership established a think tank, the Institute for Christian Democratic Politics (Institut pro křesťansko-demokratickou politiku), to promote Christian Democratic political ideas. The foundation's headquarters are located in the party's headquarters in Palác Charitas in Prague.

On 12 April 2017, KDU-ČSL signed an agreement with STAN to participate in 2017 parliamentary election as a coalition. Coalition needed to get more 10% of votes get over threshold. The coalition disintegrated before the election, thus the party went into the elections standalone, receiving 5.8% of votes.

In March 2019 the party was officially renamed to its common abbreviation, KDU-ČSL, and Marek Výborný became the new party leader. After the death of his wife, Výborný announced his resignation in November 2019 for personal reasons.

On 24 April 2026, Jan Grolich was elected in a KDU-ČSL leadership election, with 233 out of 266 votes, as the only candidate.

Membership KDU-ČSL had 27,662 Members in 2015, the second largest member base of any party in the Czech Republic. The number has been decreasing since the 1990s when the party had 100,000 members.

1991 1992 1999 2008 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2019 2026 95,435 88,000 60,000 40,000 33,000 29,976 28,541 27,662 26,420 21,870 17,328

Party strongholds KDU-ČSL is known to have very strong electoral core concentrated primarily in South Moravia. The party has very stable electoral support thanks to the rural voters in Moravia and has managed to gain seats in the Chamber of Deputies during every election cycle in the Czech Republic since 1990 with the exception of 2010.

Names over time

1919–1992 The Czechoslovak People's Party (Československá strana lidová) – merger of Moravian-Silesian Christian Social Party in Moravia, Catholic-National Conservative Party in Moravia, Czech Christian Social Party in the Kingdom of Bohemia and Catholic-National Conservative Party in Bohemia, Conservative People's Party. 1992–2019 The Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (Křesťanská a demokratická unie – Československá strana lidová) Since 2019 KDU-ČSL - after renaming to party' abbreviation.

Leaders

Jan Šrámek (1922–1948) Alois Petr (1948–1951) Josef Plojhar (1951–1968) Antonín Pospíšil (1968–1973) Rostislav Petera (1973–1980) František Toman (1980–1981) Zbyněk Žalman (1981–1989) Josef Bartončík (1989–1990) Josef Lux (1990–1998) Jan Kasal (1999–2001) Cyril Svoboda (2001–2003) Miroslav Kalousek (2003–2006) Jan Kasal (2006) Jiří Čunek (2006–2009) Cyril Svoboda (2009–2010) Michaela Šojdrová (2010) Pavel Bělobrádek (2010–2019) Marek Výborný (2019–2020) Marian Jurečka (2020–2024) Marek Výborný (2024–2026) Jan Grolich (Since 2026)

Symbols KDU-ČSL had many symbols through history, with the current logo depicting a minimalist black wordmark 'Lidovci', intended to symbolize a 'thick line' behind the past and a modern restart for the party.

Logos

Election results Czechoslovakia wide elections Legislative elections Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1920 Collective leadership 699,728 11.3 33 2nd Opposition 1925 Jan Šrámek 691,238 9.7 2 3rd Coalition 1929 Jan Šrámek 623,340 8.4 6 5th Coalition 1935 Jan Šrámek 615,804 7.5 3 6th Coalition 1946 Jan Šrámek 1,111,009 15.7 24 3rd Coalition 1948 23 4th Bloc 1954 3 3rd Bloc 1960 4 4th Bloc 1964 4 4th Bloc 1971 12 4th Bloc 1976 3 4th Bloc 1981 1 3rd Bloc 1986 1 4th Bloc 1990 Josef Bartončík 629,359 5.9 2 5th 1992 Josef Lux 388,122 4.0 2 7th Coalition

Devolved assembly elections Czech assembly elections

Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1968 25 3rd Bloc 1971 10 2nd Bloc 1976 1 3rd Bloc 1981 0 2nd Bloc 1986 0 2nd Bloc 1990 Josef Bartončík 607,134 8.42 6 4th Coalition 1992 Josef Lux 406,341 6.28 5 5th Coalition

Slovak assembly elections Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1928 Martin Mičura 43,689 3.31 2 8th – 1935 Martin Mičura 30,563 2.0 2 10th –

Czech Republic wide elections

Legislative elections Date Leader Votes Seats Position # % # ± Size 1996 Josef Lux 489,349 8.08 3 4th 1998 Josef Lux 537,013 8.99 2 4th 2002 Cyril Svoboda 680,670 14.27 11 4th Part of Coalition, which won 31 seats in total 2006 Miroslav Kalousek 386,706 7.23 18 4th 2010 Cyril Svoboda 229,717 4.39 13 6thNo seats 2013 Pavel Bělobrádek 336.970 6.78 14 7th 2017 Pavel Bělobrádek 293,643 5.80 4 7th 2021 Marian Jurečka 1,493,701 27.79 13 2nd Part of Spolu coalition, which won 71 seats in total 2025 Marek Výborný 1,313,346 23.4 7 2nd Part of Spolu coalition, which won 52 seats in total

Senate elections ElectionFirst roundSecond roundSeats gainedTotal seatsVotes%No.Votes%No. 1996 274,316 9.9 4th 247,819 10.7 3rd 1998 255,785 26.6 2nd 166,483 31.0 2nd 2000 121,355 14.1 4th 137,515 24.4 2nd 2002 58,858 8.8 4th 47,049 5.7 4th 2004 97,956 13.5 3rd 54,501 11.4 3rd 2006 125,388 11.8 4th 59,603 10.4 3rd 2008 82,870 7.9 - 42,225 5.13 - 2010 87,182 7.6 4th 42,990 6.32 4th 2012 61,006 6.94 4th 14,995 2.92 4th 2014 84,328 8.21 5th 77,103 16.27 2nd 2016 74,709 8.48 5th 78,448 18.50 2nd 2018 99,383 9.12 4th 34,833 8.33 5th 2020 82,814 8.30 4th 65,397 14.47 3rd 2022 120,972 10.87 3rd 74,696 15.57 3rd 2024 46,518 5.86 4th 15,635 4.00 5th Presidential Indirect ElectionCandidateFirst round resultSecond round resultThird round resultVotes%VotesResultVotes%VotesResultVotes%VotesResult1993 Václav Havel 109 63.37 —1998 Václav Havel 130 70.65 146 52.3 — 2003(Petr Pithart) Jan Sokol 128 46.55 129 48.13 124 46.6 2008 Václav Klaus 141 50.90 141 52.81 141 55.95 Direct ElectionCandidateFirst round resultSecond round resultVotes%VotesResultVotes%VotesResult 2013 Zuzana Roithová 255,045 4.95 6thsupported Karel Schwarzenberg 2018Jiří Drahoš1,369,60126.602,701,20648.632023 Petr Pavel 1,975,056 35.40 3,358,92658.33 Danuše Nerudová 777,080 13.93 supported Petr Pavel Pavel Fischer 376,705 6.75 supported Petr Pavel European Parliament Election List leader Votes % Seats +/– EP Group 2004Zuzana Roithová 223,383 9.57 (#4) New EPP-ED 2009 180,451 7.64 (#4) 0EPP 2014Pavel Svoboda 150,792 9.95 (#5) 1 2019 171,723 7.24 (#6) 1 2024 Alexandr Vondra 661,250 22.27 (#2) 1 Local elections Year Vote Vote % Seats1990 8,845,562 11,5 8,0831994 9,260,542 7.23 7,6161998 7,206,346 11.18 7,1192002 7,728,402 9.58 6,0132006 6,263,980 5.76 5,0492010 4,938,960 5.47 3,7382014 4,865,956 4.91 3,7922018 5,599,336 5.02 3,6332022 5,457,419 5.08 3,252

Regional elections Year Vote Vote % Seats Places 2000 537,012 22.86 2nd 2004 226,016 10.67 4th 2008 193,911 6.65 4th 2012 261,724 9.87 4th 2016 159,610 6.30 5th 2020 252,598 9.12 5th

2020 Czech regional election results RegionCzech Statistical OfficeCoalition partner# ofoverall votes% ofoverall voteSeatsGovernance # ± Position Central Bohemian STAN 92,903 22.21 2 5th South Bohemian TOP 09 20,798 10.45 6th PlzeňADS and Non-Partisans 7,588 4.36 2 11th Karlovy Vary ODS 5,870 7.35 1 8th Ústí nad Labem ODS 24,739 12.37 1 8th Liberec TOP 09 5,328 3.83 7th Hradec Králové VPM and Non-Partisans 14,738 8.32 5th Pardubice SNK-ED and Non-Partisans 22,280 13.41 1 5th Vysočina 19,082 11.96 1 3rd South Moravian 56,423 15.54 2nd Olomouc TOP 09 and Greens 34,519 18.43 1 4th Zlín 35,782 18.62 3 2nd Moravian-Silesian 30,190 9.57 1 4th

KDU-ČSL

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