Political parties in Czechoslovakia (WFAC)

Czechoslovak People's Party
The Czechoslovak People's Party (Czech: Československá strana lidová, abbreviated ČSL, often shortened to lidovci) is a Christian democratic and social conservative political party in Czechoslovakia. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right in Czechoslovak politics. Along with its Slovak sister party the Slovak People's Party (SĽS), the ČSL forms the ČSL/SĽS grouping in the Federal Assembly.

Towards the end of the 19th century Roman Catholics in Bohemia and Moravia joined political movements inside Cisleithanian Austria-Hungary. The Christian-Social Party was set up in September 1894 in Litomyšl, and the Catholic National Party in Moravia was set up in September 1896 in Přerov. The Czechoslovak People's Party was created in January 1919 in Prague, reuniting other Catholic parties, and monsignor Jan Šrámek was selected as its chairman. In 1921, the ČSL entered the government of Czechoslovakia, and was subsequently part of governing coalitions regardless of political changes.

After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Šrámek served as head of Czechoslovak government in exile (in the United Kingdom). After 1945, ČSL was part of the national unity government, and following this was a regular part of all centre-right coalitions. During the 1970's the party gradually grew to become a catch-all party of the right by formalizing their cooperation with the Slovak People's Party. In 1982 they overtook the agrarian Republican Party as the main right of centre party, with Karel Schwarzenberg as prime minister. In the period of 13 years the ČSL were in power from 1982 to 1990 and 1993 to 1998, Schwarzenberg was prime minister for 10 of them. In 2006 the ČSL returned to power with Miroslav Kalousek as prime minister, who served in this position until 2013.

Czechoslovak Social Democracy
The Czechoslovak Social Democracy (Czech: Československá strana sociálně demokratická, ČSD) is a social democratic political party in Czechoslovakia. It is the major centre-left party and one of the major political parties in Czechoslovakia. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International. Before adopting the current title in 1991, the ČSD was named Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana, ČSSD) from 1945 to 1990

It was founded on 7 April 1878 as the The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria (Czech: Sociálně Demokratická strana Českoslovanská v Rakousku) in Austria-Hungary representing the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament. Its role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that lead to the creation of independent Czechoslovak Republic. During the First World War there were sharp ideological divisions within the Social Democratic Party between supporters of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (B. Šmeral) and those backing Masaryk and an independent state (F. Modráček, F. Soukup, R. Bechyně, V. Tusar). Over time, the latter group gained predominance and actively joined in the anti-Austrian resistance.

In the first Czechoslovak Republic, the Social Democrats were a powerful force gaining 25.7% of the votes in the Parliamentary elections of April 1920. However, the party soon became split over whether to join the Comintern. This artificially induced confrontation ended in a fight for the party headquarters (Lidový dům) in December of 1920. In 1921 the party fractured, with a large part of its membership forming the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak Social Democrats emerged from the conflict in a much weakened position.

For the next ten years the new leadership attempted to regain its lost position. A breakthrough came with the leadership of A. Hampl, and subsequently the party platform of J. Stivín, which was adopted at the 16th Congress in 1930. This platform was loosely coordinated with similar efforts of the national socialist party (Beneš’s platform was approved a year later).

A great success of Hampl’s leadership was the founding of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic International at the Smíchov Merger Congress in January 1928. The Social Democrats were one of the most important parties of the First Republic, represented in an overwhelming majority of coalition governments and counting President T. G. Masaryk among their supporters.

Name changes

 * 1878–1893: The Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Party in Austria (Sociálně-demokratická strana českoslovanská v Rakousku) – part of Social Democratic Party of Austria
 * 1893–1918 The Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Workers' Party (Českoslovanská sociálně demokratická stranu dělnická) – independent party
 * 1918–1938: Czechoslovak Social Democratic Worker's Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana dělnická)
 * 1945–1990: Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana)
 * Since 1990: Czechoslovak Social Democracy (Československá sociální demokracie)

Republican Party
The Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (Czech and Slovak: Republikánská strana zemědělského a malorolnického lidu, abbreviated RSZML), also known as the Republican Party (Republikánská strana) or the Agrarians (Agrárníci), is an agrarian and conservative party of Czechoslovakia, seen as representing agriculture, big business and gradually also the middle class. The party was member of the International Agrarian Bureau, and is today members of the European People's Party and the International Democrat Union.

The party was established in 1899 as the Czech Agrarian Party, and in 1922 they merged together with the Slovak National Republican and Peasant Party. In the 1925 elections it won 45 of the 300 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, becoming the largest party in Parliament. In the same year it introduced an agrarian tariff which was seen as protecting the producers interest, motivated by the country's agrarian crisis. In the period up to 1935 it was the biggest political party in the country. Led by Antonín Švehla and his pragmatic and compromise-driven approach to conducting public policies and his firm belief in democracy, the party was consistently the strongest party in the interwar era, forming and dominating coalitions.

Following World War II it remained the largest right-wing party, with a rivalry between the more centrist Josef Černý and the more conservative Rudolf Beran. The Czechoslovak political scene of the late 1950's and 1960's were dominated by the rivalry between Social Democrat Václav Majer and the Agrarian Miloslav Rechcígl, senior. Rechcígl, who looked up to Švehla's compromise-driven approach, would serve as prime minister from 1958 to 1961 and 1966 to 1970, being the longest serving prime minister from the Agrarians since Švehla. This would however also mark the end of the era of as the dominant right of centre party, as the continuing decline of the agrarian share of the population meant they were demoted to second place as the leading right-wing party, behind the christian democratic Czechoslovak People's Party. Since then they have participated in all centre-right governments, last time in Miroslav Kalousek's cabinet from 2006 to 2014.

Name changes

 * 1899: Česká strana agrární
 * 1905: Českomoravská strana agrární
 * 1919: Republikánská strana československého venkova
 * 1922: Republikánská strana zemědělského a malorolnického lidu