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.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! 1991 !! 1992 !! 1999 !! 2008 !! 2012 !! 2013 !! 2014 !! 2015 !! 2016 !! 2019 !! 2026
|-
| 95,435 || 88,000 || 80,000 | 60,000 || 40,000 || 33,000 || 29,976 || 28,541 || 27,662 || 26,420 || 21,870 || 17,328
Names over time
thumb|Headquarters of KDU ČSL, Charitas Palace in Prague
- 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
thumb|Current party leader and governor of [[South Moravian Region Jan Grolich]]
- 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.
| 141
| 50.90
|
| 141
| 52.81
|
| 141
| 55.95
|
|}
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center;font-size:85%;line-height:14px;"
!width="120" rowspan="2"|Direct Election
!width="180" rowspan="2" colspan=2|Candidate
!width="200" colspan=3|First round result
!width="200" colspan=3|Second round result
|-
!width="100"|Votes
!width="100"|%Votes
!Result
!width="100"|Votes
!width="100"|%Votes
!Result
|-
! 2013
|style="background-color: " width="2px"|
| Zuzana Roithová
| 255,045
| 4.95
| 6th
|colspan=3 align=center|supported Karel Schwarzenberg
|-
! 2018
| style="background-color: " width="2px"|
|Jiří Drahoš
|1,369,601
|26.60
|
|2,701,206
|48.63
|
|-
! rowspan=3 |2023
| style="background-color: " width="2px"|
| Petr Pavel
| 1,975,056
| 35.40
|
|3,358,926
|58.33
|
|-
| style="background-color: " width="2px"|
| Danuše Nerudová
| 777,080
| 13.93
|
| colspan=3 align=center|supported Petr Pavel
|-
| style="background-color: " width="2px"|
| Pavel Fischer
| 376,705
| 6.75
|
| colspan=3 align=center|supported Petr Pavel
|}
European Parliament
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Election
! List leader
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! EP Group
|-
! 2004
| rowspan=2 |Zuzana Roithová
| 223,383
| 9.57 (#4)
|
| New
| EPP-ED
|-
! 2009
| 180,451
| 7.64 (#4)
|
| 0
| rowspan=4 |EPP
|-
! 2014
| rowspan=2 |Pavel 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
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Vote
! Vote %
! Seats
|-
|1990
| 8,845,562
| 11,5
| 8,083
|-
|1994
| 9,260,542
| 7.23
| 7,616
|-
|1998
| 7,206,346
| 11.18
| 7,119
|-
|2002
| 7,728,402
| 9.58
| 6,013
|-
|2006
| 6,263,980
| 5.76
| 5,049
|-
|2010
| 4,938,960
| 5.47
| 3,738
|-
|2014
| 4,865,956
| 4.91
| 3,792
|-
|2018
| 5,599,336
| 5.02
| 3,633
|}
Regional elections
{| class="wikitable"
! 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
{| class="wikitable sortable" style=text-align:center;font-size:85%;line-height:14px;"
|-
! rowspan=2|Region
! rowspan=2|Coalition partner
! rowspan=2|# of<br />overall votes
! rowspan=2|% of<br />overall vote
! colspan=3|Seats
! rowspan=2|Governance
|-
! #
! ±
! Position
|-
! Central Bohemian
| STAN
| 92,903
| 22.21
|
| 2
| 5th
|
|-
! South Bohemian
| TOP 09
| 20,798
| 10.45
|
|
| 6th
|
|-
! Plzeň
|align=center|ADS and Non-Partisans
| 7,588
| 4.36
|
| 2
| 11th
|
|-
! Karlovy Vary
|align=center| 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
|align=center| VPM and Non-Partisans
| 14,738
| 8.32
|
|
| 5th
|
|-
! Pardubice
|align=center| 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
|
|}
Further reading
Notes
References
External links
- Official website
- Official homepage of Mladí lidovci