Dawn – National Coalition (Czech: Úsvit – Národní koalice), short Dawn, (from June 2014 to August 2015) Dawn of Direct Democracy (Czech: Úsvit přímé demokracie) or (from June 2013 to June 2014) Tomio Okamura's Dawn of Direct Democracy (Czech: Úsvit přímé demokracie Tomia Okamury), was a right-wing populist,[2][3][4][5]Eurosceptic[6]political party in the Czech Republic.
Origins
The party was founded in May 2013 by Tomio Okamura,[8][9] an independent senator attached to the Christian Democratic parliamentary group.[citation needed] Tomio Okamura's Dawn of Direct Democracy supported the implementation of direct democracy at all levels "as a solution to the corruption, nepotism, clientelism and kleptocracy,"[10] the use of referendums, the direct election of deputies, senators, mayors and regional governors, a presidential system and, consequently, a stronger separation of powers.[11][12][13]
In February 2015, most of the nine members of the party and the 14 members of the Dawn parliamentary group decided to establish a new party, without leader Tomio Okamura.[20][21] On 26 February 2015, Okamura announced that the party was experiencing serious financial difficulties. Since their election to the parliament, the party had been receiving millions of Czech crowns from the state each year.[22]
Several members of Dawn have created new parties, including Freedom and Direct Democracy, led by Okamura, and the Party of National Interests led by Petr Adam.
Original logo of the party
On 7 July 2015, Dawn announced plans to merge with the Party of the National Interests, which they did in August the same year. Retired veteran[clarification needed]Miroslav Lidinský was elected as party chairman and the name was changed to Dawn – National Coalition. They also began working with the We do not want Islam in the Czech Republic group led by Martin Konvička. However, this collaboration also failed soon after, and Dawn's popularity has continued to decline. According to opinion polling, Dawn was unlikely to exceed the threshold for entry into parliament at the 2017 legislative elections.
Dawn MP Martin Lank left the party in May 2017, which reduced the parliamentary group to six MPs,[23] further reduced to five on 6 June 2017 with the departure of Jana Hnyková.[24] On 7 June 2017, Marek Černoch also left Dawn.[25]
Dawn did not participate in the 2017 legislative election. In July 2017, prominent party members stated their intention to participate in local elections in 2018.[26] The party was dissolved in March 2018.[27]
Hloušek, Vít; Kopeček, Lubomír; Vodová, Petra (2020). The Rise of Entrepreneurial Parties in European Politics. Springer Nature. ISBN978-3-030-41916-5.
