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 unhappy with the leadership of Václav Klaus. After initially serving in a caretaker government, Freedom Union went into opposition after the 1998 election. In opposition, Freedom Union merged with the Democratic Union, and formed an alliance with the Christian Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU-ČSL).
From 2002 to 2006 Freedom Union was part of a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party and KDU-ČSL. However, in government the party lost support and at the 2006 election the party won less than 1% of the vote and failed to win any seats. The party disbanded on 1 January 2011.
History
Founding
The party was founded on 17 January 1998 at a congress in Litomyšl as the Freedom Union (), as a split from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). The party was founded after divisions within ODS over the leadership of Václav Klaus, and what the defectors said was his failure to tackle funding scandals. This prompted 30 ODS members of parliament to form the Freedom Union, including Finance Minister Ivan Pilip and Defence Minister Michal Lobkowicz. The party elected Jan Ruml as its first leader on 2 February 1998. Instead the Social Democrats formed a minority government, which was tolerated by ODS. The Four-Coalition went on to win the most seats in the November 1998 Senate election.
The Freedom Union performed strongly at the November 2000 Senate election, becoming the third largest party in the Senate. In late 2001, Freedom Union merged with the Democratic Union party to form the Freedom Union-Democratic Union (US-DEU). and subsequently became part of a coalition government led by the Czech Social Democratic Party, which had a majority of one seat. Party leader Petr Mares resigned as a result, and was succeeded by the Regional Development Minister Pavel Němec. The party won just one seat at the 2004 Senate election.
Decline and dissolution
At the 2006 election, the party received just 0.3% of the vote, and lost all its seats in the Chamber of Deputies, triggering the resignation of its leader, Pavel Němec. The party was also pro-European and supported direct presidential elections.
| 3rd
| No style="background-color:#77EE77" | Yes
|-
| 1998
| 513,596
| 8.6
|
| 5th
| style="background-color:#EE7777" | No
|-
| 2002
| 680,671
| 14.27
|
| 4th
| No style="background-color:#77EE77" | Yes
|-
| 2006
| 16,457
| 0.3
|
| 11th
| style="background-color:#EE7777" | No
|}
Senate
{| class=wikitable style=text-align:right
|-
!rowspan=2|Election
!colspan=3|First round
!colspan=3|Second round
!rowspan=2|Seats
|-
!Votes
!%
!Places
!Votes
!%
!Places
|-
|align=left|1998|| || || || || || ||
|-
|align=left|2000||99,504||11.6||5th||98,985||17.6||3rd||
|-
|align=left|2002||48,879||7.3||5th||36,294||4.4||6th||
|-
|align=left|2004||26,431||3.6||7th||23,922||5.0||5th||
|-
|align=left|2006||18,522||1.7||8th||7,367||1.3||9th||
|-
|align=left|2008|| || || || || || ||
|}
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
|-
|1998
| bgcolor="grey" |
| Václav Havel
| 130
| 70.65
|
| 146
| 52.3
|
|colspan=3 align=center|—
|-
| 2003
|style="background-color: " width="2px"|
| Jan Sokol
| 128
| 46.55
|
| 129
| 48.13
|
| 124
| 46.6
|
|}
European Parliament
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Vote
! Vote %
! Seats
! Place
|-
| 2004
| 39,655
| 1.7
|
| 8th
|}
Leaders
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Leader!!Period
|-
|Jan Ruml||2 February 1998 – December 1999
|-
|Petr Mares||January 2003 – July 2004