TOP 09 (name derived from cs, Tradice Odpovědnost Prosperita, lit=Tradition Responsibility Prosperity) is a

liberal-conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...

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 the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, led by

Markéta Pekarová Adamová Markéta Pekarová Adamová (born 2 October 1984) is a Czech politician who is the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies since 2021 and leader of TOP 09 since 2019. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Arts, Charles Universit ...

. TOP 09 holds 14 seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

and has three MEPs.

History

Foundation and participation in government

The party was founded on 11 June 2009 by

Miroslav Kalousek Miroslav Kalousek (born 17 December 1960) is a Czech politician, former leader of KDU-ČSL and TOP 09, and has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) since 1998. He served twice as Finance Minister in the cabinets of Mirek Topolánek and th ...

who left the

Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

Karel Schwarzenberg Prince Karel of Schwarzenberg (, born 10 December 1937) is a Czech politician, former leader of the TOP 09 party and was its candidate for president of the Czech Republic in the 2013 election. He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies ( ...

, who had previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Topolánek cabinet from January 2007 to March 2009, having been nominated by the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

for the post, and who had been elected to the Senate in 2004 as nominee of the

Freedom Union – Democratic Union The Freedom Union–Democratic Union ( cs, Unie Svobody–Demokratická unie, US–DEU) was a small pro-European liberal party in the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2011. Freedom Union was founded in January 1998 by former members of the Civic Dem ...

(US-DEU) and

Civic Democratic Alliance The Civic Democratic Alliance ( cs, Občanská demokratická aliance, ODA) was a conservative-liberal political party in the Czech Republic, active between 1989 (founded shortly after the Velvet revolution) and 2007. The ODA was part of govern ...

(ODA) parties, became the party's first leader. Karel Schwarzenberg

In the 2010 parliament elections on 28–29 May 2010, TOP 09 received 16.7% of the vote and 41 seats, becoming the third largest party. The party joined the new coalition government, the Nečas cabinet, with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and Public Affairs (VV). In September 2010 TOP09 applied to join 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 ...

has already officially participated in two EPP summits (15 September and 16 December 2010). On 10 February 2011 TOP 09 has officially been granted permission to join the EPP. In the 2013 legislative election on 25–26 October 2013, TOP 09 won 12% of the vote and 26 seats. The party entered opposition to the Sobotka cabinet.

Opposition and cooperation with STAN and ODS

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 ...

on 24 and 25 May 2014, TOP 09 reached second place nationally with 15.95% of the vote, electing 4 MEPs. Karel Schwarzenberg left the position of leader in 2015. He was replaced by

afterwards. In March 2016, Karel Tureček left the party and joined ANO 2011 which left TOP 09 with 25 MPs. In May 2016, Pavol Lukša, one of founders of TOP 09, left the party and established the new party

Good Choice Good Choice and Moderates ( sk, Dobrá voľba a umiernení) is a political party in Slovakia. The party's goals were officially announced at a press conference on 12 September 2019. On 20 May 2023, the party approved a merger agreement with Voic ...

. TOP 09 was heavily defeated in 2016 regional elections. The party has gained only 19 seat and 3.4% of votes. Miroslav Kalousek then considered resignation but decided to stay. In January 2017, TOP 09 introduced its new program called Vision 2030. TOP 09 wants to adopt Euro, implement electronical voting and increase health standard to the level of Germany. TOP 09 also wants to shorten week work time to 4 days. Miroslav Kalousek said that he believes that TOP 09 will get over 10% in upcoming legislative election even though recent opinion polls indicated that TOP 09 might not reach 5% threshold. Ahead of 2017 parliamentary elections, TOP 09 was endorsed by The

Czech Crown The koruna, or crown, (sign: Kč; code: CZK, cs, koruna česká) has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's 9 currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to adopt the euro currenc ...

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Club of Committed Non-Party Members The Club of Committed Non-Party Members (in Czech ''Klub angažovaných nestraníků'', ''KAN'') is a small liberal party in the Czech Republic co-founded by Rudolf Battěk. It was founded during the Prague Spring in May 1968 by 144 leading Czech ...

and

Liberal-Environmental Party Liberal Environmental Party ( cs, Liberálně-ekologická strana, LES) is a Green liberalism, green-liberal list of political parties in the Czech Republic, political party in the Czech Republic. It was established by Martin Bursík as a split fro ...

. The party eventually received 5.3% of votes being marginalised to 7 seats. Jiří Pospíšil became the new leader after the election. In the next year municipal elections TOP 09 got only 1.1 per cent of the vote nationally. The best performance for the party was in the Prague City council elections, following which it joined a coalition with the

Czech Pirate Party The Czech Pirate Party or Pirates ( cs, Česká pirátská strana , abbreviated ''Piráti'' ) is a liberal progressive political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2009. The party was founded as a student-driven grassroots movement campaig ...

and Prague Together. In November, 2019,

was elected as new leader of the party. In late 2020, TOP 09 formed an electoral alliance with KDU-ČSL and ODS called SPOLU, to run in the

2021 elections Many elections occurred in 2021. The National Democratic Institute maintains calendar of elections around the world * 2021 United Nations Security Council election * 2021 national electoral calendar * 2021 local electoral calendar Africa * 2021 ...

. The alliance won popular vote and formed a coalition with

Pirates and Mayors Pirates and Mayors ( cs, Piráti a Starostové) was a liberal progressive centrist political alliance in the Czech Republic, formed for the 2021 legislative election, consisting of the Czech Pirate Party (Piráti) and Mayors and Independents (S ...

alliance. As a part of agreement of these alliances, TOP 09 leader Pekarová Adamová became Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. On 20 November 2021 Pekarová Adamová was reelected in a TOP 09 leadership election, with 163 from 176 votes, being the only candidate.

Ideology

TOP 09 has been noted for its support of

fiscal conservatism Fiscal conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and ''laissez-faire'' economics.M. O. Dickerson et al., ''An ...

and is considered pro-

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, being strongly in favour of

European integration European integration is the process of industrial, economic integration, economic, political, legal, social integration, social, and cultural Regional integration, integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integrat ...

. These two stances create a basic common ground of the party, as it was otherwise divided in two ideological wings: social conservative and social liberal. On 12 July 2017, TOP 09 and

agreed to participate in the 2017 Czech legislative election together.

Election results

Below are charts of the results that the TOP09 has secured in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, and regional assemblies at each election. Markéta Pekarová Adamová Praha 2018

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

Notes:
¹ By-election in Kladno district.
² By-election in Prague 10 district
³ By-election in Trutnov district. TOP 09 supported a STAN candidate Jan Sobotka.

Presidential

European Parliament

Local election

Prague municipal elections

Regional election

2020 Czech regional election resultsCzech Statistical Office
/ref>

Leaders

(2009–2015) *

(2015–2017) * Jiří Pospíšil (2017–2019) *

(Since 2019)

Symbols

TOP 09 Teillogo.svg, Party logo 2009–2017 TOP 09 logo.svg, Party logo 2017–present

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Top 09 Political parties established in 2009 Liberal conservative parties in the Czech Republic Member parties of the European People's Party Christian democratic parties in the Czech Republic Liberal parties in the Czech Republic Pro-European political parties in the Czech Republic KDU-ČSL breakaway groups 2009 establishments in the Czech Republic