The Civic Democratic Alliance (, ODA) was a conservative-liberal political party in the Czech Republic, active between 1989 and 2007. ODA was part of government coalitions until 1997 and participated in the transformation of the Czech economy. The party was supported by president Václav Havel, who voted for it in the 1992 and 1996 elections.

History

ODA was established as a conservative-liberal party in 1989, shortly after the Velvet revolution. In the 1992 legislative election, ODA received over 300,000 votes (5.93%) and won 14 seats in the Czech National Council. It became part of the first right-wing coalition led by Václav Klaus, together with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Christian and Democratic Union (KDU–ČSL) and Christian Democratic Party (KDS).

In the 1996 legislative election, ODA received 6.36% of the vote, and formed another coalition with ODS and KDU–ČSL. However, this government did not have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and was therefore reliant on the support of the centre-left Social Democrats (ČSSD). Following financial scandals within ODS, the coalition fell apart, and both ODS and KDU-ČSL participated in the caretaker government of Josef Tošovský.

ODA did not participate in the 1998 legislative election, in order to avoid splitting the right-wing vote. ODA formed the Four-Coalition with KDU–ČSL, Freedom Union and Democratic Union, in opposition to the grand coalition of ODS and ČSSD. However, ODA became the coalition's weakest member, and partly as a result of financial difficulties, began to fade out of the Czech political scene, with only one senator remaining, Karel Schwarzenberg. The party ceased activity on 31 December 2007.

Czech billionaire Pavel Sehnal announced in December 2016 that he had established a new Civic Democratic Alliance, without the involvement of the original ODA leadership.

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

{| class="wikitable"

! Year

! Vote

! Vote %

! Seats

! Place

! Govt?

|-

| 1990

| ...

| ...

|

| 6th

| style="background-color:#77EE77" | Yes

|-

| 1992

| 383,705

| 5.93%

|

| 7th

| style="background-color:#77EE77" | Yes

|-

| 1996

| 385,369

| 6.36%

|

| 6th

| style="background-color:#77EE77" | Yes

|-

| 1998

| did not contest

|...

|...

|...

| style="background-color:#EE7777" | No

|-

| 2002

| 24,278

| 0.5%

|

| 13th

| style="background-color:#EE7777" | No

|}

Seats in the Chamber of Deputies

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Senate

{| class="wikitable"

! Year

! Seats

|-

|1996

|

|-

|1998

|

|-

|2000

|

|-

|2002

|

|-

|2004

|

|-

|2006

|

|}

Seats in the Senate

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bar:2006 color:skyblue from:start till:1 text:1

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Presidential

{| class="wikitable"

!width="120" rowspan="2"|Indirect Election

!width="180" rowspan="2" colspan=2|Candidate

!width="200" colspan=3|First round result

!width="200" colspan=3|Second round result

!width="200" colspan=3|Third round result

|-

!width="100"|Votes

!width="100"|%Votes

!Result

!width="100"|Votes

!width="100"|%Votes

!Result

!width="100"|Votes

!width="100"|%Votes

!Result

|-

|1993

| bgcolor="grey" |

| Václav Havel

| 109

| 63.37

|

|colspan=6 align=center|—

|-

|1998

| bgcolor="grey" |

| Václav Havel

| 130

| 70.65

|

| 146

| 52.3

|

|colspan=3 align=center|—

|}

European Parliament

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Vote

! Vote %

! Seats

|-

| 2004

| 39 655

| 1.69%

| 0

|}

Leaders

  • Pavel Bratinka (1989–1992)
  • Jan Kalvoda (1992–1997)
  • Michael Žantovský (1997)
  • Jiří Skalický (1997–1998)
  • Daniel Kroupa (1998–2001)
  • Michael Žantovský (2001–2002)
  • Jiřina Nováková (2002–2007)

See also

  • Liberalism
  • Liberalism worldwide
  • List of liberal parties
  • Liberalism in the Czech lands

References

  • Civic Democratic Alliance official site
  • Short history in narrative form (in Czech)