European elections in the Czech Republic in 2009

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(in %)

 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

31.45

22.38

14.18

7.64

4.26

2.88

2.40

14.81

ODS

ČSSD

KSČM

KDU

SBB

EDS

VV

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to

 % p

 14th

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-14

-16

-18

+1.41

+13.60

-6.08

-1.93

+4.26

+2.88

+ 2.40

-16.54

ODS

ČSSD

KSČM

KDU

SBB

EDS

VV

Otherwise.

Czech logo for the European elections on June 5th and 6th, 2009

The European elections in the Czech Republic 2009 took place on June 5th and 6th, 2009. It was part of the 2009 European elections , with 22 of the 736 seats in the European Parliament in the Czech Republic .

Electoral system

The whole territory of the Czech Republic forms an electoral district . The elections took place over two days - on Friday (2 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and on Saturday (8 a.m. to 2 p.m.). The votes were converted into mandates using the D'Hondt procedure . There is a 5% threshold . The voter can give two candidates a preferential vote. If a candidate receives preference votes of at least 5% of the valid votes cast for his party or electoral coalition, he receives the mandate. If several candidates receive at least 5% of preference votes, the candidates will be ranked according to the number of preference votes.

Every Czech citizen who has reached the age of 18 by the second election day at the latest and every citizen of another Member State who has reached the age of 18 by the second election day and has been entered in the population register for at least 45 days is eligible to vote. Citizens living abroad who wanted to take part in the European elections in the Czech Republic could only vote in person on Czech territory.

Every Czech citizen who has reached the age of 21 by the second election day at the latest and every citizen of another Member State who has reached the age of 21 by the second election day and has been entered in the population register for at least 45 days is eligible to vote.

Compared to the previous legislative period, the Czech Republic has 22 seats, two fewer seats.

Political run-up to the election

In the elections to the House of Representatives in 2006 Mirek Topolánek won the conservative-bourgeois ODS , but was unable to form a majority. Both camps (the social democratic ČSSD with the communist KSČM on one side, and the ODS with the Christian democratic KDU-ČSL and the green SZ on the other) won exactly 100 of the 200 mandates. With the support of a second member of the ČSSD, Topolánek finally received a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives. The election campaign was criticized as one of the most aggressive and muddy in the Czech Republic. In the elections to the regional parliaments in 2008, the ČSSD won in all 13 regions. This deepened the tense situation again, because the ČSSD then tried to implement some election promises in the regions, but these did not correspond to the competencies of the regions. The best-known example is that the regions tried to repay the practice fee introduced by the government as part of a healthcare reform, after which the government took them to court.

Election event in Prague: Party leader Paroubek was pelted with several hundred eggs

The conservative-bourgeois government of Mirek Topolánek did not have a stable majority in the Czech House of Representatives. She had already barely survived several votes of no confidence initiated by the opposition social democratic ČSSD and had to resign after another vote of confidence on March 24, 2009 - during the Czech EU Council Presidency . This led to a very tense situation between the two major political parties ODS and ČSSD, which clearly shaped the starting positions of the election campaign.

Both major political parties, ODS and ČSSD, carried out aggressive election campaigns in the context of the European elections, often attacking each other and highlighting or imputing unfair practices of the others (so-called negative campaigning). In particular, the massively declining popularity of the social democratic party leader Jiří Paroubek among the young population led to protests and riots at election campaign events of the ČSSD. Paroubek was pelted by young people at several election campaign events, first with individuals and then in Prague with a few hundred eggs. The social network Facebook was the main organizing platform for the protests .

As a result of the aggravated situation around the large parties, election campaigns by smaller parties seemed rather dull. Former President Václav Havel supported the green Strana zelených and criticized the bad level of the election campaign several times.

Campaigning parties and top candidates

The ODS competed repeatedly with the top candidate and previous MEP Jan Zahradil. The ČSSD was led by Jiří Havel. The top candidate of the KDU-ČSL was Zuzana Roithová and the green Strana zelených was headed by Jan Dusík. The top candidate of the communist KSČM was the previous MEP Miloslav Ransdorf . A large number of small parties continued to participate in the election campaign. The previous successful MEP Jana Hybášková led the Evropská Demokratieická strana (EDS) as the top candidate. The Eurosceptic parties included the newly founded Libertas.cz, led by ODS defector Vlastimil Tlustý and MEP and media entrepreneur Vladimír Železný , and the Suverenita coalition, led by MEP Jana Bobošíková . A total of 33 subjects took part in the elections.

Result

Election winners according to constituency
(blue: ODS, orange: ČSSD)

Out of 8,401,374 eligible voters, 2,371,009 voted, which corresponds to a turnout of 28.22%. 99.57% of the votes cast were valid.

list	EP Group	Voices 2009		Seats 2009	Voices 2004		Seats 2004	Difference in 2009/2004
		number	%		number	%		be right	Seats
ODS	EPP-ED (from 2009 ECR )	741.946	31.45	9	700,942	30.04	9	41.004	-
ČSSD	PES	528.132	22.38	7th	204.903	8.78	2	323.229	5
KSČM	GUE / NGL	334,577	14.18	4th	472,862	20.26	6th	-138285	-2
KDU-ČSL	EPP-ED	180.451	7.64	2	223,383	9.57	2	-42,932	-
Others	-	573,828	24.33	0	730.772	31.33	5	-156,944	-5

The liberal SNK Evropští democé ( represented with 3 seats in 2004) and the association of independents NEZÁVISLÍ (represented with 2 seats in 2004) left the European Parliament. The green Strana zelených was the only party represented in the House of Representatives, with 48,621 votes and 2.06%, which did not reach the five percent threshold . The large number of expired voices is striking.

Elected MPs

ODS Evžen Tošenovský Jan Zahradil Oldřich Vlasák Milan Cabrnoch Ivo Strejček Miroslav Ouzký Edvard Kožušník Hynek Fajmon Andrea Češková

ČSSD Jiří Havel Richard Falbr Libor Rouček Pavel Poc Zuzana Brzobohatá Robert Dušek Olga Sehnalová

KSČM Miloslav Ransdorf Vladimír Remek Jiří Maštálka Jaromír Kohlíček

KDU-ČSL Zuzana Roithová Jan Březina

Footnotes

1. ↑ Official election result 2009 Czech Statistical Office (Czech)
2. ↑ Law No. 62/2003 Coll., On European elections.
3. ↑ It was about the deputies Michal Pohanka and Miloš Melčák.
4. ^ Only local elections are held in Prague.
5. ^ Czech Statistical Office: Elections to regional parliaments in 2008
6. ↑ Aktuálně.cz: Vaječný speciál: Od první skořápky k šoku politiků
7. ↑ Czech Statistical Office: European elections 2009
8. ↑ Czech Statistical Office: 2004 European elections

Web links

• Czech Statistical Office: 2009 European elections (English)