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Politics of the Czech Republic | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Polity type | Unitaryparliamentaryrepublic |
| Constitution | Constitution of the Czech Republic |
| Formation | 1 January 1993 |
| Legislative branch | |
| Name | Parliament of the Czech Republic |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Meeting place | |
| Upper house | |
| Name | Senate |
| Presiding officer | Miloš Vystrčil,President of the Senate |
| Lower house | |
| Name | Chamber of Deputies |
| Presiding officer | Markéta Pekarová Adamová,President of the Chamber of Deputies |
| Executive branch | |
| Head of state | |
| Title | President |
| Currently | Petr Pavel |
| Appointer | Direct popular vote,two-round system |
| Head of government | |
| Title | Prime Minister |
| Currently | Petr Fiala |
| Appointer | Chamber of Deputies |
| Cabinet | |
| Name | Cabinet of the Czech Republic |
| Current cabinet | Cabinet of Petr Fiala |
| Leader | Prime Minister |
| Headquarters | Straka Academy,Prague |
| Ministries | Ministerial departments |
| Judicial branch | |
| Name | Judiciary |
| Constitutional Court | |
| Seat | Joštova 625,Brno |
| Supreme Court | |
| Seat | Burešova 20,Brno |
| Supreme Administrative Court | |
| Seat | Moravské náměstí 6,Brno |
TheCzech Republic is aunitaryparliamentary republic, in which thepresident is thehead of state and theprime minister is thehead of government.[1] Executive power is exercised by theGovernment of the Czech Republic, which reports to theChamber of Deputies. The legislature is exercised by theParliament. The Czech Parliament isbicameral: the upper house of the Parliament is theSenate, and the lower house is theChamber of Deputies. The Senate consists of 81 members who are elected for six years. The Chamber of Deputies consists of 200 members who are elected for four years. The judiciary system is topped by the trio of theConstitutional Court,Supreme Court andSupreme Administrative Court.
The highest legal document is theConstitution of the Czech Republic, complemented by constitutional laws and theCharter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. The current constitution went in effect on 1 January 1993,[2] after thedissolution of Czechoslovakia.
The Czech Republic has amulti-party system. Between 1993 and 2013, the two largest political parties were the centre-leftCzech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and centre-rightCivic Democratic Party (ODS). This changed in early 2014, with the rise of a new major political partyANO 2011, which has since led two cabinets.
TheEconomist Intelligence Unit rated Czech Republic a "full democracy" in 2024.[3][needs update] According to theV-Dem Democracy indices the Czech Republic was 2023 the 16th most electoral democratic country in the world.[4]
The president is the head of state, and the prime minister is the head of government. The majority of executive power is given to the Cabinet, which consists of the prime minister, deputy prime ministers and ministers (usually heads of the ministries).
| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Petr Pavel | Independent | 9 March 2023 |
| Prime Minister | Petr Fiala | Civic Democratic Party | 28 November 2021 |
Thepresident of the Czech Republic is elected by a direct vote for five years. They can only serve for two terms. The president is a formalhead of state with limited executive powers specified in the articles 54 to 66 of theConstitution:[2]
The president is also the commander in chief of the Armed Forces and ratifies all domestic laws and international agreements.
TheCabinet is the supreme executive body in the Czech Republic. It makes its decisions as a body. It is held responsible by the Chamber of Deputies. The president appoints every new prime minister, who then chooses the ministers. All ministers of the Cabinet need to be approved by the president and within thirty days after the presidential approval they must ask the Chamber of Deputies for a vote of confidence.
The prime minister is the head of government. The prime minister organizes the work of the Cabinet, presides over it and acts in its name. The prime minister sets the agenda for most foreign and domestic policies but has to obtain the president's approval to hire or dismiss any other member of the Cabinet.[5]
Ministers are any member of the Cabinet who are not the prime minister. They are usually the head of aministry, but this is not required. A ministry – sometimes called government department – is a governmental organisation that manages a specific sector of public administration. The number of ministries varies depending on the particular Cabinet and is managed by theCompetence Law. As of 2021, the Czech Republic had 13 ministers and 14 ministries.[clarification needed]
TheParliament (Parlament in Czech) consists oftwo houses. The lower house is the Chamber of Deputies, and the upper house is the Senate.
| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| President of the Chamber of Deputies | Markéta Pekarová Adamová | TOP 09 | 10 November 2021 |
| President of the Senate | Miloš Vystrčil | Civic Democratic Party | 19 February 2020 |
TheChamber of Deputies (Poslanecká sněmovna in Czech) has 200 members, elected for four-year terms byproportional representation with a 5%election threshold. The Chamber of Deputies elections happen every four years, unless the reigning Cabinet prematurely loses the Chamber of Deputies' support. Candidates for every political party participating in the elections are split among 14electoral districts, which are identical to the country's administrativeregions. A citizen must be at least 21 years old to be eligible for candidacy.
The Chamber of Deputies was formerly known as theCzech National Council. It has the same powers and responsibilities as the now-defunctFederal Assembly of the Czechoslovakia.
TheSenate (Senát in Czech) has 81 members, each elected for a six-year term. Senate elections happen every two years and only a third of the seats is contested each time. All of the 81 Senate electoral districts are designed to contain roughly the same number of voters. The Senate elections use atwo-round system, when the two most successful candidates from the first round face each other again in the second round usually a week later. Only citizens who have reached the age of 40 are eligible for candidacy. The senate's function is to be a stabilizing force and its influence is significantly lower than that of the Chamber of Deputies.
The Czech court system recognizes four categories of courts and the Constitutional Court, which stands outside of the court system.
TheConstitutional Court's main purpose is to protect people's constitutional rights and freedoms. The decisions of the court are final, cannot be overturned and are considered a source of law. The court is composed of 15 justices who are named for a renewable period of 10 years by the president and approved by the Senate.[6] Its functionality is similar to that of theSupreme Court of the United States.
There are two supreme courts in the court system of the Czech Republic – the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court. Both reside inBrno.
TheSupreme Court of the Czech Republic is the court of highest appeal for almost all legal cases heard in the Czech Republic. The justices of the Supreme Court analyze and evaluate legally effective decisions of lower courts. They unify the Czech judicature.
TheSupreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic protects people from unlawful decisions and procedures of the state authorities. It examines objections to elections and has the authority to ban or suspend the activity of political parties. It resolves competence disputes between governmental organizations and also serves as disciplinary court for other members of the judiciary.
There are twohigh courts in the Czech Republic – one inPrague and one inOlomouc . They serve as courts of appeal to Regional Courts in cases, where the Regional Court acted as a court of first instance. Presidents of the high courts are appointed by the president for seven years. The vice-presidents are appointed by theminister of justice and also serve a seven-year term. A justice is required by the law to have at least eight years of experience before becoming a member of a High Court.[7]
Regional courts serve mainly as the courts of appeal to district courts and also as the only instance of administrative courts besides the Supreme Administrative Court. However, they can also act as courts of first instance in cases of more severe criminal charges, disputes between corporations or disputes over intellectual property. There are eight regional courts in the Czech Republic: inBrno,Ostrava,Hradec Králové,Ústí nad Labem,Plzeň,České Budějovice and two inPrague.
District courts serve as the courts of first instance in almost all civil or criminal proceedings. There is a total of 86 district courts in the Czech Republic. Notaries and executors are appointed by theminister of justice to their jurisdictions.
The Czech Republic is divided in 14 administrativeregions, including one for the capital of Prague. The older system of 73 administrativedistricts (okresy in Czech) and 4 municipalities was abandoned in 1999 in an administrative reform. Each of the regions has a regional council with a varied number of regional councilors and a president of the regional cabinet (hejtman in Czech) as its formal head. The capital of Prague is the only exception to this, as theCity Council acts both as regional and municipal governing body and is led by a mayor. Regional councilors are elected for four-year terms similarly to deputies in the Chamber of Deputies. All adults eligible to vote are also eligible to be a candidate to a regional council.
For the current composition of theChamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, seeList of MPs elected in the 2017 Czech legislative election.
| Party | Seats | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016[a] | 2018 | 2020 | TOTAL | ||||||
| Mayors and Independents | 3 | 5 | 11 | 19 / 81 | |||||
| Civic Democratic Party | 3 | 10 | 5 | 18 / 81 | |||||
| Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party | 7 | 2 | 3 | 12 / 81 | |||||
| ANO 2011 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 / 81 | |||||
| TOP 09 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 / 81 | |||||
| Czech Social Democratic Party | 2 | 1 | — | 3 / 81 | |||||
| Senator 21 | — | 1 | 2 | 3 / 81 | |||||
| Czech Pirate Party | — | 1 | 1 | 2 / 81 | |||||
| Green Party | 1 | — | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Svobodní | — | — | 1 | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Severočeši.cz | 1 | — | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Ostravak Movement | — | 1 | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Hradec Králové Democratic Club | — | — | 1 | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Movement for Prague 11 | 1 | — | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Marek Hilšer for Senate | — | 1 | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| United Democrats — Association of Independents | 1 | — | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Citizens Together — Independents | 1 | — | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Citizens Patriots | 1 | — | — | 1 / 81 | |||||
| Independents | 1 | 3 | — | 4 / 81 | |||||
| Total | 27 | 27 | 27 | 81 | |||||
Sources:Senate,
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From 1991, the Czech Republic, originally as part of Czechoslovakia and since 1993 in its own right, has been a member of theVisegrád Group and from 1995, theOECD. The Czech Republic joinedNATO on 12 March 1999 and theEuropean Union on 1 May 2004. On 21 December 2007 the Czech Republic joined theSchengen Area.[8]
Until 2017, either theCzech Social Democratic Party or theCivic Democratic Party led the governments of the Czech Republic. In October 2017, populist movementANO 2011, led by the country's second-richest man,Andrej Babiš, won theelections with three times more votes than its closest rival, the centre-right Civic Democrats.[9] In December 2017, Czech PresidentMiloš Zeman appointed Andrej Babiš as the new prime minister.[10]
On 28 November 2021, Czech President Miloš Zeman appointed opposition leaderPetr Fiala as the country's new prime minister. The centre-right coalitionSpolu (meaning Together) won tightly contestedlegislative elections in October 2021 against Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and hisright-wing populist ANO party. Babiš had sought re-election after four years in power.[11] In January 2023, Former NATO generalPetr Pavel won theelection runoff over Andrej Babiš to succeed Miloš Zeman as the fourth president of the Czech Republic.[12]
Government
