User:Peeteygirl/sandbox

The Civic Democratic Party (Czech: Občanská demokratická strana, ODS) is a liberal-conservative political party in the Czech Republic. It was founded in 1991 as the pro-free market wing of the Civic Forum by Václav Klaus, the first Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and modelled on the British Conservative Party,. It holds 25 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, being the second strongest party following the 2017 election.

The ODS won the 1992 legislative election, and has remained in government for most of the Czech Republic's independence. The party won at least the second highest number of seats in every election of Chamber of Deputies from the party's founding until 2013. In the 2010 election, the party lost 28 seats, finishing second, but as the largest party right of the centre, it formed a centre-right government with Petr Nečas as Prime Minister. In the 2013 legislative election, the party was marginalized by only securing 16 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, relegating the party to the opposition since July 2013. The party is currently led by Petr Fiala, who was elected leader on a party convention in January 2014.

The ODS is a member of the International Democratic Union, Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament.

ODS is a relatively new party as it exists since 1991. The party doesn't have a predecessor but Karel Schwarzenberg and Mirek Topolánek stated that the party can be considered a spiritual heir to the historical Czechoslovak National Social Party.

Formation The party was founded in 1991 as one of two successors to the Civic Forum. Civic Forum was a Big tent movement that consisted of 2 major wings. The strongest wng was Interparliamentary Club of the Democratic Right which transformed into the ODS when Civic Forum split. ODS represented followers of Václav Klaus, and was pro-free market, as opposed to the centrist Civic Movement. An agreement was reached to split the party into two at the Civic Forum Assembly on 23 February 1991. This was followed on 21 April by a formal declaration of a new party, and Klaus was elected its first President. The party agreed to continue in coalition in the Czech government with the Civic Movement, but this collapsed in July 1991.

The Civic Democrats, who represented demands for a tighter Czechoslovak federation, began to organise in Slovakia. Ahead of the 1992 election, the ODS ruled out an electoral alliance with the Liberal Democrats, but agreed to an alliance with Václav Benda's Christian Democratic Party (KDS) in order to boost its appeal to conservatives. The ODS won the election, winning 66 seats (and the KDS another ten), and formed a centre-right coalition with the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) and the KDU-ČSL, with Klaus as Prime Minister.