A leadership election for the Czech Social Democratic Party (ÃÂSSD) was held in 2018 following the 2017 legislative election. Jan HamáÃÂek was elected the new leader of the party, defeating Jià ÂàZimola in the second round.
In the previous leadership election, held in 2017, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka was reelected as the party's leader and expressed his intention to remain in the position until 2019, when the next leader would be elected. Poor results in opinion polls led to Sobotka's resignation on 14 June 2017. Minister of Internal Affairs Milan Chovanec became acting leader of the party while LubomÃÂr Zaorálek became the electoral leader for the 2017 legislative election. Chovanec announced on 29 July that the leadership election would be held in 2018, most likely in Spring. He mentioned March as a possible date. LubomÃÂr Zaorálek announced his intention to participate in the election.
ÃÂSSD suffered a heavy defeat in the 2017 election, coming sixth with 7% of the vote. Zaorálek stated that he did not intend to step down as party leader, but some prominent members of the party including Jaroslav Foldyna and Michal Haà ¡ek called for a change of leadership.
On 22 October 2017 Chovanec announced that party's meeting would be held on 7 April 2018. Milan Chovanec and Jan HamáÃÂek were mentioned by commentators as potential main candidates. Chovanec was reported to be planning his candidacy. Zaorálek announced that he would not run for party leader due to the poor result in the legislative election. Chovanec stated on 28 October that the election should be direct and suggested that the new leader could be an independent. He also stated that he would not run for the position. Regional branches of the party were dissatisfied that the election would be held in April and wanted it to be held sooner. On 3 November 2017, it was announced the election would be held on 18 February 2018. Jaroslav Foldyna and Jià ÂàZimola were mentioned as possible candidates. Roman Onderka received support from the South Moravian branch for running for any position in the party's management. Some prominent members of the organisation stated that Onderka should consider running for leadership of the party.
ÃÂSSD decided to allow independent politicians to run for the position, enabling VysoÃÂina governor BÃÂhounek to stand. BÃÂhounek announced he would run for the position if some members of the party returned to prominent leadership positions, including Jià ÂàZimola, Michal Haà ¡ek and Jeroným Tejc. These individuals stated that they did not intend to return to these positions. Tejc even left the party, saying there was a lack of responsibility for the disastrous result in 2017 legislative election. BÃÂhounek was criticised for his ties with Haà ¡ek.
On 20 December 2017, Milan Chovanec stated that he might run for the position of leader, and would announce his decision on 18 January 2018. On 8 January 2018, Jan HamáÃÂek attended a conference of Mladá Boleslav ÃÂSSD. He announced his candidacy at the meeting, saying that ÃÂSSD had to fight for its survival, and that the party had to focus on its traditional voters. HamáÃÂek received his nomination for the candidacy at the conference. On 9 January 2018, Miroslav KrejÃÂÃÂk announced his candidacy. Mayor of Olomouc StanÃÂk announced his candidacy on 11 January 2018. He received nominations from three district branches.
On 11 January 2018, Milan Chovanec received nominations from the Plzeà Â-city and Tachov branches of ÃÂSSD. He stated that he had not yet decided if he would run, but was considering it. On 12 January 2018, the Ostrava district branch nominated Miroslav KrejÃÂÃÂk and Jià ÂàZimola. Chovanec accepted the nomination and announced his candidacy on 28 January 2018. Chovanec is a supporter of Czech president Miloà ¡ Zeman and was present at Zeman's electoral headquarters when Zeman was re-elected for a second term on 27 January 2018. Chovanec received nominations from the ZlÃÂn and Plzeà  regional branches. Chovanec and HamáÃÂek were considered front-runners of the election at that time. Jià ÂàZimola also announced his candidacy on 28 January 2018. Zimola is a member of a platform called "Let's Save ÃÂSSD" and a supporter of Miloà ¡ Zeman. He is also considered an ally of Andrej Babià ¡ and ANO 2011. HamáÃÂek on the other hand is supported by a faction that opposes Zeman and supported Jià ÂàDrahoà ¡ during the presidential election.
HamáÃÂek received nominations from five regions (Prague, Central Bohemia, Karlovy Vary, Hradec Králové and Liberec). Chovanec received nominations from 3 regions (Plzeà Â, ÃÂstànad Labem and ZlÃÂn). The other candidates received nominations from one region each; Zimola was nominated by South Bohemia, StanÃÂk by Olomouc region, KrejÃÂÃÂk by South Bohemia, and à ½atecká by Liberec region. Jukl did not receive a nomination from any region. VysoÃÂina and Pardubice regions did not nominate any candidate. HamáÃÂek was considered to be the front runner due to his greater number of nominations.
The question of whether ÃÂSSD should join a coalition with ANO 2011 became the main issue of the campaign; HamáÃÂek and Zimola support joining the coalition while Chovanec is opposed. Jan Jukl, Romana à ½atecká and Jià ÂàSokol are also against the coalition with ANO. Chovanec made his opinion public in a letter to party members warning them that participation in the coalition government would hurt the party. He also criticised his rivals HamáÃÂek and Zimola. HamáÃÂek later published his own letter in which he criticised Chovanec and argued that the party should negotiate with ANO.
HamáÃÂek was considered the front-runner due to his high number of nominations. His main rival was believed to be Milan Chovanec, with Jià ÂàZimola considered the third strongest candidate. Mladá fronta DNES speculated that Miroslav KrejÃÂÃÂk could be the dark horse of the election. Chovanec succeeded in convincing delegates from North Moravia to support him.
The election was held on 18 February 2018. President Miloà ¡ Zeman attended the party meeting and suggested that the party should join a coalition with ANO 2011, but he did not endorse any particular candidate. Zeman also warned the party against excluding different opinions within the party. The election was preceded by a debate between the delegates. Michal Picl argued against a coalition with ANO. Kateà Âina Valachová said that ÃÂSSD should be confident and find its own equivalent to Robert Fico. Jan Mládek criticised Bohuslav Sobotka's leadership and said that Sobotka had only tried to keep his position, and had not presented a program to the voters. He added that the party should elect a candidate with strong ideas. LubomÃÂr Zaorálek said that the new leader should have empathy.
The candidates then made their nomination speeches. Jià ÂàSokol withdrew his candidacy. HamáÃÂek stated that he wanted to unify the party. He talked about engaging in discussions with the party membership, and said he would open the party for the people and build a welfare state, and that ÃÂSSD should support justice for people. HamáÃÂek also expressed the view that the party should negotiate with ANO 2011 about joining the government. Chovanec said he knew he wasn't a perfect candidate, and is different from Emmanuel Macron or Robert Fico. He said that ÃÂSSD should not join a coalition with ANO, but should focus on issues of interest to the people, such as executions. Chovanec concluded by saying that he was offering his experience and skills but did not want anything back. Jan Jukl opposed a coalition with ANO, and said that the party should return to trustworthy politics. Miroslav KrejÃÂÃÂk talked about the situation in the party before the 2017 legislative election, saying that he and the party's supporters had not understood the party leadership or their strategy, and the party was unable to communicate with voters. He added that relaunching the party was not enough. StanÃÂk said he wanted to return ÃÂSSD to trustworthiness. Zimola's supporters gave pink glasses to delegates, and during his speech Zimola said these glasses were to represent the current party leadership's view of the party's situation, and that they could not see the party's problems. He said that the party was supporting many things their supporters did not agree with, and the party should refocus on problems relevant to its base. He said that the people wanted to take back the state that capitalist elites had stolen from them. He received a lot of applause for his speech.
Jià ÂàZimola and Jan HamáÃÂek advanced to the second round; Zimola received 178 votes while HamáÃÂek received 156. HamáÃÂek won the second round, with 272 votes to Zimola's 224.