Freedom and Direct Democracy

Freedom and Direct Democracy (Svoboda a přímá demokracie, SPD) is a political party in the Czech Republic. It is led by Tomio Okamura and it holds 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

It has been described as right-wing or far-right   on the political spectrum,   and has also been described as a "parliamentary fascist party". The party expresses opposition to immigration and it is staunchly Eurosceptic, while in their political program they state their support for direct democracy.

At the end of 2022 the party had 10,682 members and is the fastest growing party in the country in terms of members.

History
The party was founded in May 2015 by Tomio Okamura and Radim Fiala when eight Members of Parliament split from the Dawn of Direct Democracy parliamentary group. As the party was newly-formed in that parliamentary term, these MPs sat as independents until the 2017 Czech legislative election. Following that election, the party now holds 22 seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Freedom and Direct Democracy is named after the European Parliament Eurosceptic political group Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy. The party has links with Marine Le Pen's National Front which is a member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom, a separate Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament, and Marine Le Pen endorsed SPD before the 2017 Czech legislative election.

In December 2017, SPD hosted a conference of the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom in Prague, with parties such as the French National Front, Dutch Party for Freedom, Freedom Party of Austria and Lega Nord of Italy.

In 2019, following the European Parliament elections, the SPD entered the European Parliament with two MEPs, who sit with the Identity and Democracy group.

In July 2020, SPD MP Tereza Hyťhová defected to become the third MP for the Tricolour Citizens' Movement.

During the 2021 Czech legislative election, the SPD finished fourth with 20 MPs.

On 25 February 2022, the party established its own think tank, the Institute of Freedom and Direct Democracy, focused on the "development of democracy, the rule of law, pluralism of opinions and the protection of fundamental human rights", with Josef Nerušil as its first Chairman.

On 14 September 2022, MEP Hynek Blaško left SPD due to disagreement with Okamura's leadership of the party.

On 28 June 2024, Freedom and Direct Democracy announced it would leave the Identity and Democracy group to form a new, Alternative for Germany-led group called "Europe of Sovereign Nations", citing disagreements with other ID members on the European Green Deal, immigration, censorship and Ukraine.

Mladí Espéďáci
The party's youth wing, Mladí Espéďáci (Young SPD members; MES) was established in April 2021 via Facebook, with Martin Malášek as the first leader. Diana Chodžajanová, a former contestant in Česko hledá SuperStar, became one of the faces of MES, appearing in short clips to promote the organisation. In July 2022 the MES page was removed from Facebook.

Cultural impact
A 2017 song by SPD supporters Jan Žižka and Olivie Žižková called Já volím SPD (I'm voting SPD) went viral in the Czech Republic and became the target of ridicule. This led to Žižková being jokingly voted into the top 30 female singers at the 2017 Český slavík awards.

Policies and ideology
On its website and policy brief, SPD refers to itself as "a patriotic and democratic movement" with a focus on political reform, law and order, direct democracy, entrepreneurship and national sovereignty. It also claims to seek support from ordinary working citizens, small business owners and middle class professionals. The party also wants to reduce state-surveillance, reform the Czech tax system, support internet freedom and encourage more citizen led participation in national politics. Political commentators have variously described the party as right-wing populist, nationalist and anti-immigration in its platform and rhetoric. The SPD has described itself as a national conservative party. In April 2023, a court ruled that a description of the party as "fascist" by the magazine Respekt was "in accordance with the requirement of proportionality", and the magazine did not thus need to apologise for using this description. Freedom and direct democracy have also been described as neo-fascist by other media and academic articles.

The party is opposed to Czech membership of the European Union and calls for the Czech Republic to leave the bloc. The party also wants to pursue a more restrictive immigration policy, particularly towards immigration from Islamic nations, and rejects multiculturalism. It is strongly opposed to illegal immigration and the EU's policy of migrant quotas. The party itself claims that it does not seek to promote hatred towards any race or culture, but argues for the protection of "Judeo-Christian" values and believes that migrant quotas will lead to the "Islamization" of Europe. The SPD has a pro-Israel stance on the Israel–Hamas war, with Okamura stating that it supports Israel on all major issues. Okamura has called for ending Czech military aid to Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War and advocated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Membership
Tomio Okamura often claims that SPD has a membership of thousands of members. In October 2017 he claimed that SPD has 7,000 members, and in November 2017 12,000 members. Doubt has been cast on these figures, with the suggestion that Okamura often conflates numbers of supporters with actual members. It was reported in 2015 that SPD had only 20 members, compared to Okamura's claims of 10,000. In February 2018 the party stated that it had 1,200 members. The party had 1,400 members in July 2018.