Spolu

Spolu (lit.'Together', stylized as SPOLU) was a Czech centre-right political alliance composed of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), KDU-ČSL, and TOP 09. The alliance was formed ahead of the 2021 parliamentary election, which it won, forming a coalition government with the Pirates and Mayors alliance, with Petr Fiala as prime minister. Spolu competed again in the 2025 election, but lost the election to ANO 2011.

History

Precursor cooperation

Following the 2017 parliamentary election, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), KDU-ČSL, TOP 09 and Mayors and Independents (STAN) formed the Democratic Bloc to cooperate during negotiations of the parliament's body. After these positions were filled, Petr Fiala announced the end of the Democratic Bloc however, he stated that he was open to cooperating with these parties in the future.

In 2019, Milion chvilek pro demokracii started pushing ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09, STAN and the Czech Pirate Party to cooperate in the 2021 parliamentary election as a way to prevent vote splitting and ensure that the smaller parties would not be disadvantaged by the electoral system[cs]. On 5 November 2019, ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP 09 and STAN signed an agreement to jointly promote five "safeguards for a lawful and secure state"

Formation of Spolu

Following the 2020 regional elections, the Civic Democratic Party, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 began negotiations about a potential centre-right electoral alliance for the 2021 parliamentary election.

The ODS leadership agreed to form an alliance with the other parties on 25 October 2020. Two days later party leaders Petr Fiala, Marian Jurečka and Markéta Pekarová Adamová signed a memorandum and announced that ODS, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 would form an electoral alliance for the next legislative election, with ODS leader Fiala as the alliance's candidate for prime minister. On 11 November 2020, the parties agreed that ODS would nominate the leaders of the election lists in nine regions, KDU-ČSL in three regions, and TOP 09 in two regions. The alliance was known by the media as the Three-Coalition, but on 9 December 2020 the parties announced that they would run under the name Spolu (lit.'Together'). The parties also introduced the shared electoral programme and the original logo of the coalition on 9 December 2020.

On 6 January 2021, the coalition was approached by Koruna Česká, the Conservative Party and KAN for potential cooperation. The parties called the proposition the "Three Kings Offer", a reference to the Three King's Day and to the fact that there were three of them. This cooperation fell through. On 17 January it was announced that the leader of Independents[cs] would run with Spolu and on 15 September 2021 the coalition signed a memorandum with SNK-ED about its support of the coalition.

2021 Parliamentary election

On 11 April 2021, the Civic Democratic Party, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 signed the coalition agreement, introduced new logo and their priorities, the slogan of the campaign was "We will put Czechia back together" (Czech:Dáme Česko dohromady)

On 19 May 2021, in Brno on Moravian Square[cs], the coalition officially started their campaign. Then-MP Dominik Feri launched a campaign targeting young voters and first-time voters called "I have a Voice" (Czech:Mám hlas.) Reports of repeated sexual harassment, including allegations of rape allegedly committed by Feri, led to the removal of this part of the campaign’s website from the internet. Following these developments, Spolu needed to find a replacement for Feri on their Prague list. The parties were sought someone capable of attracting liberal urban voters. One potential candidate was the Jan Čižinský, Mayor of Prague 7, from Praha Sobě, who had suspended his KDU-ČSL membership at the time. Čižinský’s supporters included Alexandra Udženija (ODS), Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09) and Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL), those opposed included Jana Černochová (ODS) and the Prague branches of KDU-ČSL and TOP 09. Spolu also launched a new campaign targeting young voters called "We are going to Vote" (Czech:Jdeme volit) replacing the old "I have a Voice" campaing. Each party had its own main face of this campaign, Jiří Havránek (ODS), Radovan Gaudyn (KDU-ČSL) and Matěj Ondřej Havel (TOP 09).

The chair of the Spolu coalition’s election campaign committee was ODS Deputy leader Zbyněk Stanjura, and the vice-chair was MEP and KDU-ČSL Deputy leader Tomáš Zdechovský, who also participated in the door-to-door campaign.

Ahead of the election, opinion polls suggested that ANO 2011 would win, but in an electoral upset Spolu won the highest number of votes, and opposition parties won a majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

Formation of the government

The opposition parties signed a memorandum agreeing to nominate Spolu leader Petr Fiala for the position of prime minister. On 9 November, President Miloš Zeman formally asked Fiala to form a new government. On 17 November 2021, Fiala introduced Zeman to his proposed cabinet and Zeman agreed to appoint Fiala as the new prime minister on 26 November 2021.

2022 Senate and Municipal elections

In November 2021, Fiala said he would like to continue with the Spolu coalition into the 2022 Senate and municipal elections. On 14 June 2022, Spolu announced that the coalition would nominate 19 candidates in the senate elections. Leadership of the three parties wanted Spolu to run together in municipal elections to show that it was not just a coalition for one election. Spolu failed to recreate the coalition in most of the Czech regional capitals[cs]. The regional capitals where they ran together were: Prague, Ostrava, Plzeň, Olomouc, Pardubice and Karlovy Vary. In several cities, such as Ústí nad Labem or Brno the parties of the Spolu coalition ran under the name Společně, which was dictated by a deal between the parties that prevented them from using the Spolu brand when one of the parties was missing from the coalition.

2023 Presidential election

In the 2023 Czech presidential election, Spolu endorsed three candidates: Petr Pavel, Danuše Nerudová, and Pavel Fischer.

2024 European Parliament election and Regional elections

In the 2024 European Parliament elections, ODS, KDU-ČSL, and TOP 09 ran again as part of the Spolu coalition, which won six seats and finished in second place behind ANO 2011. In some regions, parties ran as the SPOLU coalition in the 2024 regional elections, for example in the Central Bohemian Region, the South Moravian Region, and the Liberec Region.

2025 Parliamentary election

On 28 October 2024, party leaders signed a memorandum and announced that ODS, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 would continue as an electoral alliance for the 2025 parliamentary election. Spolu received 23.4% of the vote, losing the election to ANO 2011.

On 17 January 2026, following his election as leader of ODS, Martin Kupka announced that the alliance would remain dormant for at least four years.

Composition

Regional leaders in the 2021 election

Regional leaders in the 2025 election

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

Presidential

European Parliament

Local election

Prague municipal elections

Notes