Small parties in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic: Case study - Věci veřejné

Elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic were a huge success for the new party Věci veřejné. During party's first elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the party was able to reach almost 570,000 voters. The paper analyzes the causes of sudden electoral success of Věci veřejné and offers insights into the gradual transformation from the regional party to the state level party. The emphasis is on party's self-presentation and on the topics that were used in order to reach the voters. The paper shows, how can a new small party succeed in parliamentary elections