Law, Respect, Expertise (, PRO) is a right-wing populist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area'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, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

History

The party was founded in June 2022 by figures linked to Charter 2022, an initiative opposing COVID-19 restrictions and vaccinations. Lawyer Jindřich Rajchl, a former member of the Tricolour Citizens' Movement, became its first leader. The party largely focused on energy policy during the press conferences held to launch the party. In July 2022, the party announced it would nominate seven candidates for the 2022 Czech Senate election, including Hana Zelená and Ivan Noveský. The party gained some media attention during August 2022 when Rajchl appeared in a Sanep poll for preferred Prime Minister, finishing fourth with 7.9%. On 3 September 2022, Rajchl and other prominent members of the party appeared at an anti-government demonstration on

Wenceslas Square Wenceslas Square (Czech language, Czech: , colloquially ''Václavák'' ; German language, German: ''Wenzelsplatz'') is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the New Town, Prague, New Town of Pr ...

. PRO participated in the 2022 Czech Senate election with seven candidates. , who was endorsed by PRO, advanced to the second round and eventually won the seat. After underwhelming results for both parties in the

2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

, PRO and

Freedom and Direct Democracy Freedom and Direct Democracy (, SPD) is a political party in the Czech Republic. It is led by Tomio Okamura and it holds 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The party has been described as right-wing or far-right on the political spectrum. It ...

formed an electoral alliance with Tricolour for the 2024 Czech regional elections.

Positions

The party has been labelled as

pro-Russian Russophilia is the identification or solidarity with, appreciation of, or support for the Russia, country, Russians, people, Russian language, language, and history of Russia. One who espouses Russophilia is called a russophile. Its Opposite ...

, due to several PRO candidates calling for an end to sanctions on Russia, and Czech support for Ukraine. However, in April 2023, party vice-chair Petr Vack rejected this label, saying PRO considered Russia's actions against Ukraine to be "aggression" and "the conflict should end under the conditions of full respect for Ukraine's territorial sovereignty". According to Rajchl, the party is inspired by the politics of

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

and Robert Fico, stands against "the

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

and

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

Inquisition", and represents

national conservatism National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity, communitarianism and the public role of religion. It shares aspects of traditionalist conservatism and social conserv ...

Election results

European Parliament

References

External links

Official website
Law, Respect, Expertise 2022 establishments in the Czech Republic Political parties established in 2022 Eurosceptic parties in the Czech Republic Far-right political parties in the Czech Republic Right-wing populism in the Czech Republic Nationalist parties in the Czech Republic Populism in the Czech Republic Right-wing populist parties Right-wing parties in the Czech Republic {{CzechRepublic-party-stub