TOP 09

TOP 09 (Tradice Odpovědnost Prosperita) is a liberal-conservative  political party in the Czech Republic, led by Markéta Pekarová Adamová. 14 of its members sit in the Chamber of Deputies, and three of them are MEPs.

Foundation and participation in government
The party was founded on 11 June 2009 by Miroslav Kalousek who left the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. Its first leader was Karel Schwarzenberg, who had previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Topolánek cabinet from January 2007 to March 2009, having been nominated by the Green Party for the post, and who had been elected to the Senate in 2004 as nominee of the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) and Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) parties.

In the 2010 parliament elections on 28–29 May 2010, TOP 09 received 16.7% of the vote and 41 seats, becoming the third largest party. The party joined the Nečas cabinet, forming a coalition with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and Public Affairs (VV).

In September 2010 TOP 09 applied to join the European People's Party. Karel Schwarzenberg had already officially participated in two EPP summits (15 September and 16 December 2010 ). On 10 February 2011 TOP 09 was granted permission to join the EPP.

In the 2013 legislative election on 25–26 October 2013, TOP 09 won 12% of the vote and 26 seats. The party became part of the parliamentary opposition to the Sobotka cabinet.

Opposition and cooperation with STAN and ODS
In the 2014 European elections on 24 and 25 May 2014, TOP 09 reached second place nationally with 15.95% of the vote, electing 4 MEPs.

Karel Schwarzenberg left the position of leader in 2015. He was replaced by Miroslav Kalousek afterwards.

In March 2016, Karel Tureček left the party and joined ANO 2011, which left TOP 09 with 25 MPs. In May 2016, Pavol Lukša, one of founders of TOP 09, left the party and established a new party, Good Choice.

The 2016 Czech regional elections were a major loss for TOP 09. The party gained only 19 seats and 3.4% of the vote. Miroslav Kalousek then considered resigning, but decided to remain the party’s leader.

In January 2017, TOP 09 introduced a new program called Vision 2030, in which it declared intentions to adopt the Euro, implement electronical voting, and increase health standards in Czechia to Germany's level. TOP 09 also wanted to shorten the working week to 4 days. Miroslav Kalousek said he believed that TOP 09 would get over 10% in the upcoming legislative election even though recent opinion polls indicated that TOP 09 might not reach the 5% threshold.

Ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections, TOP 09 was endorsed by The Czech Crown, Conservative Party, Club of Committed Non-Party Members and Liberal-Environmental Party. The party eventually received 5.3% of the vote, gaining 7 seats. Jiří Pospíšil became the new leader after the election.

In the next year municipal elections TOP 09 got only 1.1 per cent of the vote nationally. The best performance for the party was in the Prague City council elections, following which it joined a coalition with the Czech Pirate Party and Prague Together.

In November, 2019, Markéta Pekarová Adamová was elected party’s leader. In late 2020, TOP 09 formed an electoral alliance with KDU-ČSL and ODS called SPOLU, to run in the 2021 elections. The alliance won the popular vote and formed a coalition with the Pirates and Mayors alliance. As a result of agreements made to form these alliances, TOP 09 leader Markéta Pekarová Adamová became President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic.

On 20 November 2021 Pekarová Adamová was reelected in a TOP 09 leadership election, with 163 out of 176 votes, being the only candidate.

On 11 November 2023 Pekarová Adamová was reelected in a TOP 09 leadership election, with 142 out of 177 votes, being the only candidate.

Ideology
TOP 09 is characterised most prominently by its fiscal conservatism and its pro-Europeanism, being firmly in favour of European integration. Generally, the party is considered to lean towards both liberal and conservative strains of right-of-centre thought, gradually becoming increasingly liberal compared to its official stance of conservatism.

Election results
Below are charts of the results that the TOP09 has secured in the Chamber of Deputies, Senate, European Parliament, and regional assemblies at each election.

Senate
Notes:

1 By-election in Kladno district.

2 By-election in Prague 10 district

3 By-election in Trutnov district. TOP 09 supported a STAN candidate Jan Sobotka.

Leaders

 * Karel Schwarzenberg (2009–2015)
 * Miroslav Kalousek (2015–2017)
 * Jiří Pospíšil (2017–2019)
 * Markéta Pekarová Adamová (Since 2019)