Freedom and Direct Democracy


Freedom and Direct Democracy is a hard Eurosceptic, anti-immigration, pro-direct democracy political party in the Czech Republic. The party holds 20 seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies.

History

The party was founded in May 2015 by Tomio Okamura and Radim Fiala after a number of MPs split from the parliamentary group of Dawn of Direct Democracy. Since the party didn't exist before the Czech legislative election 2013, the then 8 parliament members from this party were officially called "Independents" until the 2017 Czech legislative election. Following that election, the party now holds 22 seats in the Czech Chamber of Deputies.
Freedom and Direct Democracy is named after the European Parliament Eurosceptic political group Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy. The party has links with Marine Le Pen's National Front which is a member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom, a separate Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament and Marine Le Pen endorsed SPD before the 2017 Czech legislative election.
In December 2017, SPD hosted a conference of the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom in Prague, with parties such as the French National Front, Dutch Party for Freedom, Freedom Party of Austria and Lega Nord of Italy.
In 2019, following the European Parliament elections, the SPD entered the European Parliament with two MEPs, who sit with the Identity and Democracy group.
In July 2020, SPD MP Tereza Hyťhová defected to become the third MP for the Tricolour Citizens' Movement.

Policies

The SPD broadly describes itself as a "patriotic and democratic movement" on its website and party program.
The party is opposed to Czech membership of the European Union and calls for the Czech Republic to leave the bloc. The party also wants to pursue a more restrictive immigration policy, particularly towards immigration from Islamic nations, and rejects multiculturalism. It is strongly opposed to illegal immigration and the EU's policy of migrant quotas which it argues will lead to the "Islamization" of Europe. However, the party maintains that it does not want to promote hatred to any nation, group or culture, but argues that Europe's Judeo-Christian identity should be protected.
SPD also supports introducing a system of direct democracy and encouraging citizen participation in politics. It also wants to protect the right to privacy from state surveillance and supports a reduction in VAT tax.

Organisation

Membership

often claims that SPD has a membership of thousands of members. In October 2017 he claimed that SPD has 7,000 members, and in November 2017 12,000 members. Doubt has been cast on these figures, with the suggestion that Okamura often conflates numbers of supporters with actual members. It was reported in 2015 that SPD had only 20 members, compared to Okamura's claims of 10,000. The actual number of members is unknown.
In February 2018 the party stated that it had 1,200 members. The party had 1,400 members in July 2018.

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

Local election

European Parliament

Regional election

Prague municipal elections