Liberalism in the Czech Republic


This article gives an overview of liberalism in the Czech Republic. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it is not necessary that parties label themselves as a liberal party.

Background

When liberalism started in the Czech lands, they were member states of Austria-Hungary. Liberals in the region started as part of the conservative nationalist National Party or Old Czechs, but from 1874 they formed their own party: the National Liberal Party, also known as the Young Czechs. Czech liberals usually do not call themselves liberals, but prefer labels such as progressive or even national socialist.

History

The liberal movement is currently unsuccessful in this country. Liberal parties are small or in decline and are unable to cooperate. They were unsuccessful at the 2004 European elections. At these elections the European Democrats proved to be a liberal alternative, but it joined the EPP.

National Liberal Party

  • 1874: Liberals in Bohemia seceded from the National Party and formed the National Liberal Party.
  • 1889: A faction of the National Party joined the National Liberal Party.
  • 1897: The ⇒ Radical Progressive Party seceded from the party.
  • 1899: The ⇒ Czech State Rights Radical Party seceded from the party.
  • 1900: A faction seceded as the ⇒ Czech People's Party.
  • 1918: The party merged with the ⇒ Czech State Rights Radical Party, the National Party and others into the mainly conservative Czech State Rights Democrats, renamed in 1919 as the Czechoslovak National Democracy.
  • 1924: Allies of president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk left the party to form the ⇒ National Labour Party.
  • 1934: After the party developed into a national-conservative party, it joined the National Unification.

Czech People's Party / Czech Progressive Party

  • 1887: A second faction of liberals seceded from the National Party and joined the ⇒ National Liberal Party in 1889.
  • 1900: This faction formed the Czech People's Party.
  • 1906: The party absorbed the ⇒ Radical Progressive Party and was renamed Czech Progressive Party.
  • 1918: The party disappeared, members joined the ⇒ Czech State Rights Democrats and the ⇒ Czech Socialist Party

Radical Progressive Party

  • 1897: The Radical Progressive Party seceded from the ⇒ National Liberal Party
  • 1906: The party merged into the ⇒ Czech Progressive Party

From National Social Party until Liberal National Social Party

Radical State Rights Party / Progressive State Rights Party

  • 1899: The Radical State Rights Party seceded from the ⇒ National Liberal Party
  • 1908: The party merged with a faction of the former ⇒ Radical Progressive Party into the Progressive State Rights Party.
  • 1918: The party merged with the ⇒ National Liberal Party and others into the ⇒ Czech State Rights Democrats.

National Labour Party

German Democratic Freedom Party

From Civic Movement until Party for the Open Society

  • 1991: Liberals inside the general democratic Civic Forum formed the Civic Movement. The movement largely failed in elections.
  • 1993: The party was renamed into the Free Democrats.
  • 1995: After another failure in elections the party merged with the ⇒ Liberal National Social Party into the Free Democrats-Liberal National Social Party.
  • 1997: After failure in 1996 elections, the Free Democrats left the party and in 1998 formed the Party for the Open Society.

Civic Democratic Alliance

Freedom Union

Liberal leaders

Liberal thinkers

In the contributions to liberal theory the following Czech thinkers are included: