Czech Republic Government and Politics

State and politics

Czech Republic Country Flag

Reference: Czech Republic Flag Meaning

According to AllCityCodes.com, the Czech Republic was formed at the division of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993. According to its constitution, the legislative power lies with a parliament with two chambers. The main legislative power is found in the lower chamber (Chamber of Deputies) with 200 members elected according to a proportional electoral system every four years. The upper chamber, the Senate, has 81 members and is elected in one-man constituencies according to a rotating system of six years. The Senate’s main function is to slow down the legislative process. The Senate, like the president, can veto the lower chamber’s bill. In both cases, however, the lower chamber may, after a new vote, ignore these. The president was previously indirectly elected through the election of both parliamentary chambers, but after a constitutional change in 2012, the president is now elected directly by the people. The office of president is primarily symbolic. Since 1993, however, the office has been held by three powerful politicians: 1993–2003 Václav Havel, 2003–13 Václav Klaus and since 2013 Miloš Zeman, all of whom have been accused of interfering in politics more than admitting the office.

Since the mid-1990s, Czech party politics has been dominated by two major parties, the Liberal Conservative Občanskáokratická strana (ODS) and the Social Democrats Česká strana sociálněokratická (ČSSD). ODS was founded in 1991 by Václav Klaus and has held the government, together with various coalition parties, in three rounds: 1992–97, 2006–09 and 2010–13. ODS combines market liberalism with euro skepticism. Also see AbbreviationFinder for abbreviation of EZ and its meanings of Czech Republic.

ČSSD differs from other socialist parties in the region because the party is the heir to the Social Democratic Party that existed in Czechoslovakia during the interwar period and was thus not formed by reformed communists. Poland and Hungary. The CSSD ruled in 1998–2002 with the passive support of the ODS and between 2002–06 in a coalition with a liberal and a Christian democratic party. To the left of the CSSD is the uninformed Communist Party Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy (KSČM) who regularly gathers 10-15 percent of the vote. To date, no other party has cooperated with KSČM.

In the 2010 elections, the Christian Democratic Party (KDU-ČSL) and the Green Party (SZ) lost their seats in Parliament. Instead, two new center-right parties came in: Tradice Odpovědnost Prosperitá 09 (TOP 09), led by popular former Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, and Věci Veřejné (VV), led by renowned TV journalist Radek John. While TOP 09 made the choice for a financial austerity policy, VV has mainly profiled itself as an anti-corruption party. In July 2010, ODS party leader Petr Nečas formed a majority government together with TOP 09 and VV.

The new coalition government quickly got into trouble. Heavy budgetary tightening, motivated by the financial crisis, resulted in a reduction in government support while drawing attention to several cases of suspected corruption in the Government Offices. The VV split in the summer of 2012, when a faction within the party formed the Liberal Democrats (Lidem). These came to replace the VV in a newly formed government with weakened support in the Chamber of Deputies. In the summer of 2013, the government split as a result of Prime Minister Petr Nečas being forced to resign after corruption suspicions have now been directed at his closest associates. Social Democrat Jiři Rusnok formed a temporary government composed of technocrats and new elections were announced until October.

The new election was marked by dissatisfaction voting. The ODS backed sharply, and the newly formed dissatisfaction party ANO 2011 became the second largest party after the Social Democrats. The Communist Party KSČM received almost 15 percent of the vote and became the third largest party. The election gave no obvious majority in the Chamber of Deputies for any government coalition, and the resulting government negotiations became complicated.

At the end of January 2014, a new coalition government could be installed, consisting of the Social Democrats, ANO 2011 and the Christian Democrats under the leadership of Social Democrats party leader Bohuslav Sobotka. ANO 2011’s leader, billionaire Andrej Babiš, was named finance minister.

Judiciary

Following the division of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993, the Czech Republic continues to apply and further develop the existing legal system, which is codified and consists, inter alia, of: civil law, civil law, criminal law, criminal law and commercial law. The judiciary consists mainly of district courts, regional courts, supreme courts, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court.

Since 2004, legal development has been greatly influenced by the country’s membership of the EU. The death penalty was abolished in 1990 in the then Czechoslovak Republic and is not included in the penal code in the Czech Republic.

Heads of State

Presidents

1993-2003 Václav Havel
2003-2013 Václav Klaus
2013 Miloš Zeman

Czech Republic Head of Government

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