Mayors and Independents

The Mayors and Independents (Czech: Starostové a nezávislí, STAN) is a liberal^[17] political party in the Czech Republic, focused on localism,^[2] regionalism^[18] and subsidiarity. It holds 33 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and is the third strongest party by number of seats following the 2021 election. In the Czech Senate, the STAN group has 19 members.

Mayors and Independents Starostové a nezávislí
Leader	Vít Rakušan
Deputy Leaders	Lukáš Vlček Jan Farský Michaela Šebelová Pavel Čížek Karel Dvořák
Chamber of Deputies Leader	Josef Cogan
Senate Leader	Petr Holeček
Founded	2004; 21 years ago (2004)
Newspaper	STANoviny
Think tank	Institute of Modern Politics iSTAR
Youth wing	Young Mayors and Independents
Membership (2021)	1,921[1]
Ideology	Localism[2] Liberalism[6] Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre[10] to centre-right[15]
National affiliation	Pirates and Mayors (2020–2021)
European Parliament group	European People's Party Group
Colours	Pink   Yellow
Slogan	Staráme se o lidi (lit. 'We take care of people.')[16]
Chamber of Deputies	33 / 200
Senate	19 / 81
European Parliament	2 / 21
Regional councils	91 / 675
Regional governors	2 / 13
Local councils	3,073 / 62,300
Website
starostove-nezavisli.cz
Politics of the Czech Republic Political parties Elections

The party grew out of four minor parties, including the Independent Mayors for the Region,^[19] and the liberal-conservative SNK European Democrats. Until 2016, the party cooperated with another liberal-conservative party, TOP 09. STAN contested the 2021 Czech parliamentary election as part of the coalition Pirates and Mayors with the Czech Pirate Party.

History

STAN grew out of the Independent Mayors for the Region (Nezávislí starostové pro kraj; NSK), founded in 2004. In 2009, led by its first leader Petr Gazdík and deputy leader Stanislav Polčák, STAN started co-operating with the liberal-conservative TOP 09 at all levels, with Gazdík leading the TOP 09 and STAN parliamentary group. In the 2010 local elections, the party won 1,243 councillors, making it the sixth-largest party on local councils.^[20]

In 2013, the co-operation with TOP 09 ended at local and regional levels, and continued only in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the 2013 election to the Chamber of Deputies, STAN won five seats on the TOP 09 list: Jan Farský, Stanislav Polčák, Věra Kovářová, František Vácha and acting leader Petr Gazdík.

In March 2014, Martin Půta, governor of the Liberec Region, was unanimously elected leader of STAN, and Gazdík became the first deputy leader with Polčák as the second deputy.^[21] Running a joint list for the 2014 European Parliament election, STAN and TOP 09 received 15.95% of the vote and won four seats,^[22] one of which was taken by STAN's Stanislav Polčák. In 2016, Martin Půta was succeeded by Petr Gazdík, who led STAN into the regional and Senate elections. In the 2017 election to the Chamber of Deputies, STAN won six seats: Petr Gazdík, Jan Farský, Věra Kovářová, Vít Rakušan, Martin Půta (who was replaced by Petr Pavek) and Jana Krutáková.^[23]

In 2019 Vít Rakušan was elected as leader.^[24] In 2020 STAN won the Senate elections, taking 11 of the 27 seats contested. The party contested the 2021 Czech parliamentary election as part of the Pirates and Mayors coalition with the Czech Pirate Party. Thanks to preferential voting, STAN took most of the coalition's 37 seats, winning 33 and becoming the third strongest party in the Chamber of Deputies.^[25]

Positions

In promoting the principle of subsidiarity, STAN encourages localism, decentralisation, reduced bureaucracy and anti-corruption measures.^[2] STAN also promotes European integration, improvements to education, and investment in science.

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

Election	Leader	Vote	%	Seats	±	Position	Status
2010	Petr Gazdík	873,833	16.71	5 / 200	New	6th	Coalition
	Ran on TOP 09 list, which won 41 seats in total
2013	Petr Gazdík	596,357	12.00	4 / 200	1	8th	Opposition
	Ran on TOP 09 list, which won 26 seats in total
2017	Petr Gazdík[a]	262,157	5.18	6 / 200	2	9th	Opposition
2021	Vít Rakušan	839,448	15.61	33 / 200	27	3rd	Coalition
	Part of the Pirates and Mayors coalition, which won 37 seats in total

Senate

Election	First round			Second round			Seats	Total seats	+/–
	Votes	%	Place	Votes	%	Place
2012	4,460	0.5	25th				0 / 27	0 / 81	New
2014	15,576	1.5	9th	11,099	2.3	9th	2 / 27	2 / 81	2
2016	43,234	4.9	7th	25,389	6.0	6th	3 / 27	5 / 81	3
2018	76,817	7.0	7th	47,317	11.3	3rd	5 / 27	11 / 81	5
2020	122,948	12.3	2nd	104,538	23.1	1st	11 / 27	19 / 81	7
2022	75,406	6.8	5th	6,410	1.3	13th	0 / 27	15 / 81	4
2024	87,734	11.1	3rd	53,498	13.7	3rd	5 / 27	15 / 81

Presidential

Indirect elections

Election	Candidate		First round			Second round			Third round
			Votes	%	Result	Votes	%	Result	Votes	%	Result
2008		Jan Švejnar	128	49.10	Runner-up	141	47.19	Runner-up	111	44.05	Lost

Direct elections

Election	Candidate		First round			Second round
			Votes	%	Result	Votes	%	Result
2013		Karel Schwarzenberg	1,204,195	23.40	Runner-up	2,241,171	45.20	Lost
2018		Jiří Drahoš	1,369,601	26.60	Runner-up	2,701,206	48.63	Lost

European Parliament

Billboard in Prague

Election	List leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	EP Group
2009[b]	Jaromír Štětina	53,984	2.29 (#8)	0 / 22	New	−
2014[c]	Luděk Niedermayer	241,747	15.95 (#2)	1 / 21	1	EPP
2019[d]	Jiří Pospíšil	276,220	11.65 (#4)	1 / 21
2024[e]	Danuše Nerudová	258,431	8.70 (#5)	2 / 21	1

1. With participation of the Mayors for Liberec Region and the SNK European Democrats candidates on the party list.
2. Run in a joint list with Your Option.
3. Run in a joint list with TOP 09.
4. Run in a joint list with TOP 09, SZ and LES.
5. Run in a joint list with Mayors for Liberec Region.

Regional councils

Leading the movement

Election	Vote	%	Seats	+/–	Position
2004	Ran only in coalitions		1 / 675	1	10th
2008	53,462	1.83	14 / 675	13	5th
2012	28,763	1.09	38 / 675	24	5th
2016	101,696	4.02	56 / 675	18	6th
2020	167,459	6.04	91 / 675	35	4th

Prague City Assembly

Election	Leader	Coalition			Seats	+/–	Position	Status
		Parties	Votes	%
2014	Petr Štěpánek	STAN–KDU-ČSL–Zelení	2,323,976	11.2	2 / 65	2	8th	Coalition
2018	Petr Hlaváček	STAN–TOP 09–KDU-ČSL–LES–SKN ED	4,127,063	16.3	4 / 65	2	6th	Coalition
2022		—	1,831,696	7.8	5 / 65	1	5th	Coalition

Leaders

Leader of the party Vít Rakušan

• Josef Zicha (2005–2009)
• Petr Gazdík (2009–2014)
• Martin Půta (2014–2016)
• Petr Gazdík (2016–2019)
• Vít Rakušan (Since 2019)