KDU-ÃÂSL (In Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union â Czechoslovak People's Party; ), often shortened to ("the populars"), is a Christian democratic political party in the Czech Republic, led by Marek Výborný. The party has taken part in most of the Czech government coalitions since 1990, and has been represented in every parliament except for the 6th Czech parliament (2010âÂÂ2013). It currently forms part of the parliamentary opposition, having been elected on the lists of the Spolu electoral alliance.
After the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy, the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, and the formation of the First Czechoslovak Republic, Jan à  rámek helped unite a number of Catholic political parties to create the Czechoslovak People's Party (ÃÂSL) in 1919. The party remained continuously active throughout the twentieth century. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, à  rámek served as head of the Czechoslovak government in exile in the United Kingdom. After 1945, ÃÂSL was part of the national unity government, forming its most right-wing section. It was one of many parties brought together in the National Front, which was initially a tripartisme-style coalition meant to drive out the Nazis, but was permanently used by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSÃÂ) to control political and social activities in the country, especially after the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'etat.
Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the party has participated in almost every Czech government. In the June 2006 parliamentary election, KDU-ÃÂSL won 7.2% of the vote and 13 out of 200 seats. However, in the 2010 election, its vote share dropped to 4.4%, and the party lost all of its seats. The party regained its parliamentary representation in the 2013 parliamentary election, winning 14 seats in the new parliament, thus becoming the first party ever to return to the Chamber of Deputies after previously dropping out.
In 2015, the KDU-ÃÂSL leadership established a think tank, the Institute for Christian Democratic Politics (Institut pro kà Âesà ¥ansko-demokratickou politiku), to promote Christian Democratic political ideas. The foundation's headquarters are located in the party's headquarters in Palác Charitas in Prague.
On 12 April 2017, KDU-ÃÂSL signed an agreement with STAN to participate in 2017 parliamentary election as a coalition. Coalition needed to get more 10% of votes get over threshold. The coalition disintegrated before the election, thus the party went into the elections standalone, receiving 5.8% of votes.
In March 2019 the party was officially renamed to its common abbreviation, KDU-ÃÂSL, and Marek Výborný became the new party leader. After the death of his wife, Výborný announced his resignation in November 2019 for personal reasons.
KDU-ÃÂSL had 27,662 Members in 2015, the second largest member base of any party in the Czech Republic. The number has been decreasing since the 1990s when the party had 100,000 members.
KDU-ÃÂSL is known to have very strong electoral core concentrated primarily in South Moravia. The party has very stable electoral support thanks to the rural voters in Moravia and has managed to gain seats in the Chamber of Deputies during every election cycle in the Czech Republic since 1990 with the exception of 2010.
KDU-ÃÂSL had many symbols through history, with the current logo depicting a Christian cross on a linden leaf.