The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a

Christian-democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in Slovakia that is a member of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

(EPP) and an observer of the

Centrist Democrat International The Centrist Democrat International ( es, Internacional Demócrata de Centro) is a Christian-democratic political international. Until 2001, it was known as the Christian Democrat International (CDI); before 1999, it was known as the Christian D ...

History

The party was established in 1990. In the 1990s it was led by

Ján Čarnogurský Ján Čarnogurský (born 1 January 1944) is a Slovak former politician, who served as the prime minister of Slovakia (1991–1992) and the former chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement (1990–2000). Today he is chairman of Slovak-Russian ...

and then since 2000 by

Pavol Hrušovský Pavol Hrušovský (born 9 June 1952) was the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (the Slovak parliament) from 15 October 2002 to 7 February 2006 and party leader of the Christian Democratic Movement (2000–2009). Professiona ...

. Before the 2016 elections, it was led by

Ján Figeľ Ján Figeľ (born 20 January 1960 in Čaklov) is a Slovak politician. Figeľ served as European Commissioner from 2004 to 2009, then as Slovak minister of Transports from 2010 to 2012. From 2016 to 2019 he was European Commission special env ...

. Following the defeat in the elections, Figeľ stepped down from the position and Pavol Zajac became temporary leader until the decisive party meeting on 19 March 2016. Figeľ endorsed Milan Majerský, mayor of

Levoča Levoča (; hu, Lőcse; rue, Левоча) is a town in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,700. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Gothic church with the highest wooden altar in the wo ...

, for the position. The KDH was a member of the government coalition, but it left that coalition on 7 February 2006 due to disputes over an international treaty between

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

dealing with the

Conscientious objection A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objecti ...

on religious grounds. In the parliamentary election of 17 June 2006, the party won 8.3% of the popular vote and 14 out of 150 seats. Four prominent parliamentary members (

František Mikloško František Mikloško (born 2 June 1947) is a Slovak politician. He was the Speaker of the Slovak National Council from 1990 to 1992. And a long serving MP of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (1990-2010). For most of his career, he wa ...

Vladimír Palko Vladimír Palko (born 20 May 1957 in Čuňovo) is a Slovak politician. He is a member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and former interior minister of Slovakia. On 12 March 2008 he established a new party called Conservative Dem ...

, Rudolf Bauer and Pavol Minárik) left the party on 21 February 2008 due to their dissatisfaction with the party, its leadership and its policies, and founded the

Conservative Democrats of Slovakia The Conservative Democrats of Slovakia ( sk, Konzervatívni demokrati Slovenska, KDS) is a defunct Slovak political party established by four MPs (František Mikloško, Vladimír Palko, Rudolf Bauer and Pavol Minárik) who belonged to the Christ ...

in July. In the 2012 parliamentary election, KDH received 8.82% of the vote, placing it the second-largest party in the National Council with 16 deputies, leaving it the largest opposition party to the ruling

Direction – Social Democracy Direction may refer to: *Relative direction, for instance left, right, forward, backwards, up, and down ** Anatomical terms of location for those used in anatomy ** List of ship directions *Cardinal direction Mathematics and science *Directio ...

. In the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

, KDH came second place nationally, receiving 13.21% of the vote and electing 2 MEPs. In the 2016 parliamentary election, the party only won 4.94% of the vote, losing all of its seats. This was the first time since its inception that the party did not reach the parliament. Following the electoral defeat, KDH elected Alojz Hlina its new leader.

Party leaders

* Pavol Zajac was acting president of party in 2016 and 2020 (after the lost election)

Election results

National Council

European Parliament

Presidential

Notes

References

External links

* Conservative parties in Slovakia Christian democratic parties in Slovakia Member parties of the European People's Party Social conservative parties Catholic political parties {{Slovakia-party-stub