Civic Movement

A Czech social liberal political party between 1991 and 1996, with roots in the Civic Forum. Its chairman was Jiří Dienstbier throughout its existence. Its members also included Petr Pithart, Martin Bursík, Pavel Rychetský, Miloš Zeman and Jan Sokol.

The movement was established on 27 April 1991 after the separation of the Civic Democratic Party from the Civic Forum. Most of its members sympathized with the idea of ​​"apolitical politics", which was promoted primarily by Václav Havel, which is why the Civic Movement was perceived as the main heir of the Civic Forum. Already by its name, the Civic Movement declared a reserved approach to party membership - for a certain period of the movement's operation, collective membership was also allowed. The differences in opinion among the movement's members did not allow it to profile itself as either right-wing or left-wing, and the movement was thus placed in the middle of the political spectrum. However, it openly declared its liberal orientation.

In the elections to the 1992 Czech National Council election, the Civic Movement won 4.6% of the vote, remaining just below the five-percent threshold. In response, the movement transformed itself into the Free Democrats (Svobodní demokraté) party in 1993. The party's liberal orientation and its demarcation towards the left (the Czech Social Democratic Party) and the right (the Civic Democratic Party) were officially confirmed. At the turn of 1995 and 1996, the Free Democrats merged with the Liberal National Social Party into an entity called the Free Democrats – Liberal National Social Party. However, this union did not last long; in 1998, some of the original members of the Civic Movement founded the Party for an Open Society, which had one senator and participated in the government in the Liberec Region.

Chairperson: Jiří Dienstbier