Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

Poslanecká sněmovna
House of Representatives

logo	Palais Thun, meeting building
Basic data
Seat:	Palais Thun , Prague
Legislative period :	4 years
MPs:	200
Current legislative period
Last choice:	20./21. October 2017
Chair:	Radek Vondráček ( ANO )
Distribution of seats
Distribution of seats:	Government (93) ANO 78 ČSSD 15 Supported by (15) KSČM 15 Opposition (92) ODS 23 Piráti 22 SPD 19th KDU-ČSL 10 TOP 09 7 STAN 6 Others 5
Website
www.psp.cz

Old logo

The Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic ( Czech Poslanecká sněmovna Parlamentu České republiky , abbreviated PS PČR ) is the lower house of the Czech Parliament .

genesis

The House of Representatives was created on January 1, 1993 with the 1992 constitution as the lower chamber of parliament with 200 members. It was renamed from the Czech National Council and is in the tradition of the House of Representatives of Czechoslovakia until 1939.

Until 1996 the House of Representatives was de facto a unicameral parliament , since the establishment of the Senate provided for by the constitution first had to be carried out by the House of Representatives. Debates about the usefulness and the fact that the House of Representatives was indissoluble until the establishment of the Senate delayed this, so that the first elections to the Senate did not take place until 1996.

In the first few years, the House of Representatives played only a minor role in matters of foreign policy in particular, as the upgrading from regional to national parliament meant that it was not staffed with appropriate experts. The uncertainty associated with the shortened electoral term and the division of the state, as well as the lack of resources, further weakened the work of parliamentarians.

tasks

Parliament's primary role is to control the government and pass laws. The MPs themselves have a legislative right of initiative (not an exclusive one). Laws are first passed by the House of Representatives. The draft law is then submitted to the Senate . If the Senate takes a negative position, it can be overruled by the House of Representatives with an absolute majority of all MPs. The consent of both chambers is only required in particularly important situations. This area includes, in particular, the passing of constitutional laws, the electoral law, the election of the president, the declaration of a state of war or the sending of troops abroad. Parliament's approval is also required for some international treaties. Furthermore, the parliament proclaims the state of war in the event of an enemy attack or if international military alliance obligations have to be fulfilled.

The House of Representatives is located in three blocks of houses and palaces on Prague's Lesser Town . The main building in which the meetings take place is the Palais Thun , where the Bohemian Parliament already met.

composition

The House of Representatives, which consists of 200 elected representatives, is currently composed as follows:

logo		Political party	Alignment	Chairman	Seats
		ANO 2011 (ANO) campaign of dissatisfied citizens	populist	Andrej Babiš	78
		Občanská Demokratieická strana (ODS) Democratic Citizens' Party	liberal conservative	Petr Fiala	25th
		Česká pirátská strana (Piráti) Pirate Party	Pirate party	Ivan Bartoš	22nd
		Svoboda a přímá demokracie - Tomio Okamura (SPD) Freedom and direct democracy	right-wing populist / right-wing extremist	Tomio Okamura	22nd
		Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy (KSČM) Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia	Communist	Vojtěch Filip	15th
		Česká strana sociálně democická (ČSSD) Social Democratic Party	social democratic	Jan Hamáček	15th
		Křesťanská a democická unie - Československá strana lidová (KDU-ČSL) Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party	Christian Democratic	Pavel Bělobrádek	10
		TOP 09 Tradition, responsibility, prosperity	liberal conservative	Jiří Pospíšil	7th
		Starostové a nezávislí (STAN) mayors and independents	liberal conservative	Petr Gazdík	6th
	total				200

The Palais Thun

Boardroom

A multi-party system has been established in the Czech Republic . Until 2010, the liberal-conservative Občanská Demokratieická strana (ODS) and the social democratic Česká strana sociálně Demokratieická (ČSSD) had a dominant position. A peculiarity of the Czech party spectrum compared to other East Central European countries is the existence of a strong communist party , the KSČM . Unlike in other former satellite states of the Soviet Union , this was not transformed into a social democratic party or replaced by one, but continues to exist alongside the Czech Social Democratic Party as a parliamentary party. The reason is the "purges" after the Prague Spring , through which progressive and reform-oriented forces were removed from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . Since the KSČM is considered incapable of forming a coalition, but at the same time consistently held between 22 and 41 seats in the House of Representatives, this led to a divided opposition between communists and social democrats, which was unable to provide a clear alternative to the conservative-liberal camp. This situation also led to constant wing fighting within the ČSSD and to a sometimes aggressive political style of this party. This situation is exacerbated by the often very tight majority ratios between the left and the right spectrum of parties, which is one of the reasons for the frequent instability of the Czech governments. One consequence of this situation was the so-called opposition agreement between ODS and ČSSD from 1998 to 2002. Another party that has been established since the beginning is the Christian-Democratic People's Party KDU-ČSL , which, however, now has the status of a small party.

In the 2010 parliamentary elections , the conservative newly founded TOP 09 was able to reach over 16 percent straight away, but lost strength in the subsequent elections. The rise of the ANO protest party began with the 2013 elections , and the right-wing populist Úsvit party also moved in . In 2017, ANO won the elections by a large margin. The pirates , the mayor Party STAN and Úsvit elimination SPD attracted first time in the Chamber of Deputies. The result is a political spectrum that is split up into new parliamentary parties, which includes eight parties between 12 and 5 percent in addition to the dominant ANO.

choice

The House of Representatives is elected in a proportional representation procedure. The political parties draw up lists of candidates in the constituencies (which correspond to the areas of the 14 regions ). There is a 5% threshold . The votes are converted into mandates using the D'Hondt procedure . The voter can give two candidates a preferential vote. The minimum age of the candidates is 21 years. The legislative period is 4 years.

The last parliamentary elections took place on October 20 and 21, 2017 .

Distribution of seats after the 2013 election

33

50

14th

47

14th

26th

16

33 50 14th 47 14th 26th 16 

A total of 200 seats

• KSČM : 33
• ČSSD : 50
• Úsvit : 14
• ANO : 47
• KDU : 14
• TOP 09 : 26
• ODS : 16

Election results of the elections to the House of Representatives

Surname	May 31/1. June 1996	19./20. June 1998	14./15. June 2002	2nd / 3rd June 2006	28/29 May 2010	25./26. October 2013	20./21. October 2017
ČSSD	26.44%	32.31%	30.20%	32.32%	22.09%	20.45%	7.27%
ODS	29.62%	27.74%	24.47%	35.38%	20.22%	7.72%	11.32%
TOP 09	-	-	-	-	16.71%	11.99% 1)	5.31%
KSČM	10.33%	11.03%	18.51%	12.81%	11.27%	14.91%	7.76%
Věci veřejné	-	-	-	-	10.88%	-	-
KDU-ČSL	8.08%	9.00%	14.27% 2)	7.22%	4.88%	6.78%	5.80%
SZ	-	1.12%	2.36%	6.29%	2.44%	3.19%	1.46%
ANO 2011	-	-	-	-	-	18.65%	29.64%
Úsvit	-	-	-	-	-	6.88%	-
SPD	-	-	-	-	-	-	10.64%
STAN	-	-	-	-	-	- 1)	5.18%
Pirates	-	-	-	-	0.80%	2.66%	10.79%
Others	25.53%	18.80%	10.19%	5.98%	11.20%	6.64%	4.83%
voter turnout	76.41%	74.03%	58.00%	64.47%	62.55%	59.48%	60.84%

¹⁾ TOP 09 ran for the 2013 parliamentary elections in a coalition with STAN .

²⁾ The KDU-ČSL ran for the parliamentary elections in 2002 in a coalition with the US-DEU .

Chairwoman of the House of Representatives

• Milan Uhde (ODS) June 30, 1992 - June 27, 1996
• Miloš Zeman (ČSSD) June 27, 1996 - July 17, 1998
• Václav Klaus (ODS) July 17, 1998 - July 11, 2002
• Lubomír Zaorálek (ČSSD) July 11, 2002 - August 14, 2006
• Miloslav Vlček (ČSSD) August 14, 2006 - April 22, 2010
• Miroslava Němcová (ODS) April 24, 2010 - August 28, 2013
• Jan Hamáček (ČSSD) November 27, 2013 - November 22, 2017
• Radek Vondráček (ANO) since November 22, 2017
  • Deputy Chairpersons currently: Jan Hamáček (ČSSD), Vojtěch Filip (KSČM), Tomio Okamura (SPD), Vojtěch Pikal (Piráti), Petr Fiala (ODS)

literature

• Petr Kolář, Petr Valenta: The Parliament of the Czech Republic - the House of Representatives . Prague: For the Chancellery of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Czech Republic edited by Ivan Král 2009. ISBN 978-80-87324-02-8 .

See also

• Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic (Upper House of Parliament)
• Political system of the Czech Republic

Web links

• House of Representatives (Czech / English)
• Election results - Czech Statistical Office (Czech / English)

Commons : Poslanecká sněmovna Parlamentu ČR  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : Parliamentary Elections in the Czech Republic 2010  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

 Wikinews: Parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic end in surprise  - news

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hudalla, Anneke: Foreign Policy in Times of Transformation. The European Policy of the Czech Republic 1993–2000, Münster 2003, p. 51.
2. ↑ Hudalla, Anneke: Foreign Policy in Times of Transformation. The European Policy of the Czech Republic 1993–2000, Münster 2003, pp. 51–52.
3. ↑ Cf. Hudalla, Anneke: Foreign Policy in Times of Transformation. The European Policy of the Czech Republic 1993–2000, Münster 2003, p. 61.
4. ↑ News - 22-04-2010 18:05 - Radio Prague . Radio.cz. April 22, 2010. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. Retrieved on August 18, 2010.