Freedom and Direct Democracy

Freedom and Direct Democracy
Svoboda a přímá demokracie
Leader Tomio Okamura
Deputy Leaders Radim Fiala
Jaroslav Holík
Radek Rozvoral
Radovan Vích
Chamber of Deputies Leader Radim Fiala
Founded 5 May 2015 (2015-05-05)
Split from Dawn of Direct Democracy
Headquarters Rytířská 6, Prague[1]
Newspaper Na vlastní oči[2]
Membership 1,400[3]
Ideology Direct democracy[4][5]
Hard Euroscepticism[6]
Anti-immigration[7]
Anti-Islam[8]
Right-wing populism[4][9]
Czech nationalism[10][11]
Political position Right-wing[12][13] to far-right[14][15][16][17]
European affiliation Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom
Colours      Blue
Chamber of Deputies
22 / 200
Senate
0 / 81
European Parliament
0 / 21
Regional councils
18 / 675
Governors of the regions
0 / 13
Local councils
0 / 62,300
Website
http://www.spd.cz/

Freedom and Direct Democracy – Tomio Okamura (Czech: Svoboda a přímá demokracie - Tomio Okamura, SPD) is a hard Eurosceptic,[6] anti-immigration[7] and pro-direct democracy[4][5] political party in the Czech Republic. The party holds 22 seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies.

History

The party was founded in May 2015 by Tomio Okamura and Radim Fiala after a number of MPs split from the parliamentary group of Dawn of Direct Democracy, now Dawn - National Coalition. Since the party didn't exist before the Czech legislative election 2013, the then 8 parliament members from this party were officially called "Independents" until the 2017 Czech legislative election. Following that election, the party now holds 22 seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies.

Freedom and Direct Democracy is named after the European Parliament Eurosceptic political group Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy.[18][19][20] The party has links with Marine Le Pen's National Front which is a member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom, a separate Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament[21] and Marine Le Pen endorsed SPD before the 2017 Czech legislative election.[22]

In December 2017, SPD hosted a conference of the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom in Prague, with parties such as the French National Front, Dutch Party for Freedom, Freedom Party of Austria and Lega Nord of Italy.[23]

Organisation

Membership

Tomio Okamura often claims that SPD has a membership of thousands of members. In October 2017 he claimed that SPD has 7,000 members,[24] and in November 2017 12,000 members. Doubt has been cast on these figures, with the suggestion that Okamura often conflates numbers of supporters with actual members. It was reported in 2015 that SPD had only 20 members, compared to Okamura's claims of 10,000. The actual number of members is unknown.[25]

In February 2018 the party stated that it had 1,200 members.[26] The party had 1,400 members in July 2018.[3]

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

Year Vote Vote % Seats ± Place Government?
2015
8 / 200
 Split from Dawn No
2017 538,574 10.64
22 / 200
 Increase 14 4th No

Senate

Election First round Second round Seats Notes
Votes % Places Votes % Places
20165,9880.6820th 
0 / 27
2018759 3.347th 
0 / 1
By-election in Trutnov district.
2018 697 4.09 8th  
0 / 1
 By-election in Zlín district. Lubomír Nečas was a SPO candidate supported by SPD.
2018 70,110 6.44 7th  
0 / 27

Local election

Year Vote Vote % Place Seats
2018
0 / 62,300

Regional election

Year Vote Vote % Seats +/- Place Note
2016 153,099 5.7
18 / 675
 6th Participated in coalition with Party of Civic Rights

Prague municipal elections

Year Leader Vote Vote % Seats +/− Place Position
2018 Hynek Beran
0 / 65

References

  1. ↑ "Seznam politických stran a hnutí - Ministerstvo vnitra České republiky". aplikace.mvcr.cz.
  2. ↑ demokracie, SPD - Svoboda a přímá. "Tomio Okamura: První číslo nových novin SPD - Na vlastní oči | SPD - Svoboda a přímá demokracie". www.spd.cz. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Okamura zítra obhajuje post šéfa SPD". MF Dnes. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "Czechia". Parties and Elections in Europe.
  5. 1 2 demokracie, SPD - Svoboda a přímá. "Program - SPD - Svoboda a přímá demokracie". www.spd.cz.
  6. 1 2 "France's Le Pen announces far-right bloc of anti-EU MEPs". BBC. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Okamura registers new anti-immigrant party Freedom and Direct Democracy". spd.cz. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  8. ↑ "Czech far-right leader Tomio Okamura urges citizens to walk pigs near mosques to defend country from Islam". Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "Volební zisky evropské krajní pravice jsou zatím vyšší než české". ceskapozice.lidovky.cz (in Czech). 23 December 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "Revoluce v Evropě? Něco se děje, podívejte se na Česko, píše se v Británii". EuroZprávy.cz. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  11. ↑ Beran, Vojtěch (13 November 2016). "42 "vlasteneckých" a nacionalistických skupin v Česku". Echo24.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  12. ↑ "Czech President Calls EU 'Cowards' on Yerushalayim". Hamodia. 10 December 2017.
  13. ↑ "New Czech PM Babiš prepares to talk migration, reforms at EU summit". Euractiv. 7 December 2017.
  14. ↑ Far-right scores surprise success in Czech election. Reuters. Authors - Robert Muller and Jan Lopatka. Published 21 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  15. ↑ Far-Right Czech election ‘kingmaker’ calls for referendum on EU membership ‘just like Britain’. The Telegraph. Author - Matthew Day. Published 19 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  16. ↑ Babiš’ Czech Republic: too thin a gruel?. openDemocracy. Author - Michal Simecka. Published 20 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017
  17. ↑ Ultra-right parties in EU nations score surging popularity in recent surveys. PRESSTV. Published 11 February 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  18. ↑ "» Rozhovor Tomia Okamury pro EuroZprávy.cz". Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  19. ↑ "Okamura a Fiala skončili v hnutí Úsvit, zakládají novou stranu". Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  20. ↑ https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/1096898594-udalosti-komentare/4322-rekli-v-udalostech-komentarich/?strana=4 Archived October 9, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
  21. ↑ "Tomio Okamura svolal všechny své lidi a bylo rušno: Nepřátelští vetřelci! Pokus o vraždu. Delegace od Marine Le Pen i provolání k Zemanovi". Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  22. ↑ Mouvement pour une Europe des Nations et des Libertés (19 October 2017). "Marine Le Pen supports Tomio Okamura, President of the SPD, member of the MENF" – via YouTube.
  23. ↑ "Le Pen to appear at December event with Okamura in Prague - Radio Prague".
  24. ↑ "Okamura chce s SPD do vlády. Podmínkou je pro něj zákon o referendu". Euro.cz (in Czech). 6 October 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  25. ↑ "Tisíc sem, tisíc tam. Okamura neví, kolik má jeho hnutí SPD členů. V televizi opět nemluvil pravdu". Info.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  26. ↑ "Nové straníky táhne do partají volební úspěch i propad". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 9 February 2018.
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