TOP 09

TOP 09 (name derived from Tradice Odpovědnost Prosperita, meaning "Tradition Responsibility Prosperity"[13]) is a liberal-conservative[3][4][5][6] political party in the Czech Republic, led by Markéta Pekarová Adamová. TOP 09 holds 7 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and has three MEPs.

TOP 09
Leader	Markéta Pekarová Adamová
Deputy Leaders	Tomáš Czernin Jan Jakob Lukáš Otys Herbert Pavera Vlastimil Válek
Chamber of Deputies Leader	Miroslav Kalousek
MEP Leader	Luděk Niedermayer
Founded	11 June 2009 (2009-06-11)
Split from	KDU–ČSL[1]
Headquarters	Opletalova 1603/57, Prague
Youth wing	TOP Team
Membership (2019)	2,383[2]
Ideology	Liberal conservatism[3][4][5][6] Christian democracy[7] Liberalism[8][9][10] Pro-Europeanism[11]
Political position	Centre-right[12]
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament group	European People's Party
Colours	Purple
Chamber of Deputies	7 / 200
Senate	3 / 81
European Parliament	2 / 21
Regional councils	19 / 675
Governors of the regions	0 / 13
Local councils	192 / 61,892
Website
www.top09.cz
Politics of the Czech Republic Political parties Elections

History

The party was founded on 11 June 2009 by Miroslav Kalousek who left the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party.[14] 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, became the party's first leader.[15][16]

Karel Schwarzenberg, Honorary chairman and former leader of TOP 09

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.[17] The party joined the new coalition government, the Nečas cabinet, with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and Public Affairs (VV).[18]

In September 2010 TOP09 applied to join the European People's Party. Karel Schwarzenberg has already officially participated in two EPP summits (15 September[19] and 16 December 2010[20]). On 10 February 2011 TOP 09 has officially been granted permission to join the EPP.[21]

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

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.[22] In May 2016, Pavol Lukša, one of founders of TOP 09, left the party and established the new party Good Choice.[23]

TOP 09 was heavily defeated in 2016 regional elections. The party has gained only 19 seat and 3.4% of votes. Miroslav Kalousek then considered resignation but decided to stay.[24]

In January 2017, TOP 09 introduced its new program called Vision 2030. TOP 09 wants to adopt Euro, implement electronical voting and increase health standard to the level of Germany. TOP 09 also wants to shorten week work time to 4 days. Miroslav Kalousek said that he believes that TOP 09 will get over 10% in upcoming legislative election even though recent opinion polls indicated that TOP 09 might not reach 5% threshold.[25][26]

Ahead of 2017 parliamentary elections, TOP 09 was endorsed by The Czech Crown, Conservative Party, Club of Committed Non-Party Members and Liberal-Environmental Party.[27][28] The party eventually received 5.3% of votes being marginalised to 7 seats. Jiří Pospíšil became the new leader after the election.[29]

Ideology

TOP 09 has been noted for its support of fiscal conservatism and is considered pro-European Union,[11] being strongly in favour of European integration.[30] These two stances create a basic common ground of the party, as it is otherwise divided in two ideological wings: social conservative and social liberal.[31] On 12 July 2017, TOP 09 and Liberal-Environmental Party agreed to participate in the 2017 Czech legislative election together.[32]

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.

Chairmen of party Markéta Pekarová Adamová

Chamber of Deputies

Year	Leader	Vote	Vote %	Seats	+/−	Place	Govt?
2010	Karel Schwarzenberg	873,833	16.7	41 / 200		3rd	Yes
2013	Karel Schwarzenberg	596,357	12.0	26 / 200	15	4th	No
2017	Miroslav Kalousek	268,811	5.3	7 / 200	19	8th	No

Ex leader of TOP 09 MEP Jiří Pospíšil

Senate

Election	First round			Second round			Seats	Notes
	Votes	%	Places	Votes	%	Places
2010	165,277	14.40	3rd	51,310	7.54	3rd	2 / 27
2011	2,053	7.51	4th				0 / 1	By-election in Kladno district.
2012	57,907	6.59	5th	9,918	1.93	5th	2 / 27
2014	92,137	8.98	5th	30,476	6.43	6th	0 / 27
2014	2,055	15.55	3rd				0 / 1	By-election in Prague 10 district
2016	70,653	8.02	6th	30,820	7.27	5th	2 / 27
2018	7,615	33.51	1st	30,331	67.11	1st	1 / 1	By-election in Trutnov district. Jan Sobotka was a STAN candidate supported by TOP 09
2018	41,980	3.85	7th	22,580	5.40	8th	1 / 27

Presidential

Election	Candidate		First round result			Second round result
			Votes	%Votes	Result	Votes	%Votes	Result
2013		Karel Schwarzenberg	1,204,195	23.40	Runner-up	2,241,171	45.20	Lost
2018		Jiří Drahoš			Runner-up			Lost

European Parliament

Year	Vote	Vote %	Seats	Place
2014	241,747	16.0	4 / 21	2nd
2019	276,220	11.7	3 / 21	4th

Local election

Year	Vote	Vote %	Seats
2010	8,537,461	9.5	1,509 / 62,178
2014	8,324,195	8.4	726 / 62,300
2018	1,241,976	1.10	192 / 61,892

Prague municipal elections

Year	Leader	Vote	Vote %	Seats	+/−	Place	Position
2010	Zdeněk Tůma	1,043,008	30.2	26 / 65		1st	Opposition (2010-2013)
2014	Tomáš Hudeček	4,158,226	20.1	16 / 65	10	2nd	Opposition
2018	Jiří Pospíšil	4,127,063	16.3	13 / 65	3	4th	Coalition

Regional election

Year	Vote	Vote %	Seats	+/-	Place
2012	175,089	6.6	44 / 675		5th
2016	86,164	3.4	19 / 675		9th

Former TOP09 leaders Karel von Schwarzenberg and Miroslav Kalousek

Leaders

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

Symbols

• 
  Party logo 2009–2017
• 
  Party logo 2017–

References

1. Zdenka Mansfeldová (2013). "The Czech Republic". In Sten Berglund; Joakim Ekman; Kevin Deegan-Krause; Terje Knutsen (eds.). The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 232. ISBN 978-1-78254-588-0.
2. "Trikolóra má už víc fanoušků než STAN a Piráti". Novinky.cz. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
3. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "Czechia". Parties and Elections in Europe.
4. "Kalousek se střetl s Dolejšem, večerní škola liberalismu stála proti marxismu-leninismu". Novinky.cz. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
5. Maciej Stobinski (2014). "Twenty years of the Czech party system: 1992–2011". In Lucyna Czechowska; Krzysztof Olszewski (eds.). Central Europe on the Threshold of the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Challenges in Politics and Society. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 296. ISBN 978-1-4438-6483-1.
6. Otto Eibl; Michal Pink (2016). "Election Results, Candidate Lists and the Framing of Campaigns". In Ruxandra Boicu; Silvia Branea; Adriana Stefanel (eds.). Political Communication and European Parliamentary Elections in Times of Crisis: Perspectives from Central and South-Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-137-58591-2.
7. "Křesťanská politika". Retrieved 25 May 2016.
8. "TOP 09 opouštějí letité tváře, vadí jim liberální plány mladší generace". iDnes.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 15 April 2017.
9. "TOP 09 se dohodla na společné kandidátce s LES Martina Bursíka. Chtějí se poprat o liberální voliče". ihned.cz (in Czech). 12 July 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
10. "Silně konzervativní Chalánkovou vedení TOP 09 odmítlo. Navzdory Kalouskovi". iDnes.cz (in Czech). 12 June 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
11. Dan Marek; Michael Baun (2010). The Czech Republic and the European Union. Routledge. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-136-94098-9.
12. "Foreign Policy Centre: Articles and Briefings / Necas in a bind: The Eurozone fiscal compact and the Czech Republic". Retrieved 25 May 2016.
13. Tom Lansford, ed. (2015). Political Handbook of the World 2015. SAGE Publications. p. 1660. ISBN 978-1-4833-7155-9.
14. Klausmann, Alexandra (21 May 2010). "Tschechien: Jugend vereint gegen Linksparteien". Wiener Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
15. "Schwarzenberg to be Kalousek's Czech TOP 09 party leader". Czech News Agency. 11 June 2009.
16. "Karel Schwarzenberg", TOP 09 party website, retrieved 7 June 2013
17. "Official results of election to the Parliament of the Czech Republic 2010". Volby.cz. 29 May 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
18. Sten Berglund (2013). The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 231–232. ISBN 978-1-78254-588-0.
19. administrator (16 September 2010). "EPP welcomes European Council conclusions; Roma issue should not be exploited". Epp.eu. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
20. administrator. "EPP official website". Epp.eu. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
21. "TOP 09 členem nejsilnější evropské strany – TOP 09". Top09.cz. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
22. Kopecký, Josef (10 March 2016). "Turečka vyhodili z klubu TOP 09. Politika "Antibabiš" je mi cizí, říká". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
23. "TOP 09 leading politician Lukša establishes new party | Prague Monitor". www.praguemonitor.com. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
24. televize, Česká. "Kalousek chce vědět, zda má pokračovat. Jeho TOP 09 ve volbách pohořela". ČT24. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
25. "Třináctiletka TOP 09 počítá s internetovými volbami i zavedením eura". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 29 January 2017.
26. "TOP 09 slibuje životní úroveň jako v Německu do 2030 a boj za střední třídu". iDNES.cz. 28 January 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
27. Novotný, Svatopluk. "SPOLEČNÉ TISKOVÉ PROHLÁŠENÍ politických subjektů: Koruna Česká (monarchistická strana Čech, Moravy a Slezska), Konzervativní strana a Klub angažovaných nestraníků - Koruna Česká - monarchistická strana Čech, Moravy a Slezska". www.korunaceska.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 13 June 2017.
28. "Konzervativní strana: Viribus Unitis". www.konzervativnistrana.cz. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
29. Roubková, Janetta (26 November 2017). "Nový předseda TOP 09 je Pospíšil, první místopředsedkyní Pekarová. 'Jdeme pracovat na komunálních volbách.'". irozhlas.cz. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
30. Michal Klima (2015). "Czech Republic". In Donatella M. Viola (ed.). Routledge Handbook of European Elections. Routledge. p. 554. ISBN 978-1-317-50363-7.
31. "Komparace politických stran ODS a TOP 09".
32. "TOP 09 a Bursíkova LES se dohodly na spolupráci pro volby. Vytvoří společnou kandidátku". Lidovky.cz. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2017.

External links

• Official website