ABSTRACT
The Czech Republic's ethnic minorities began to organize soon after the "velvet revolution" and established various associations to protect their interests. The biggest losers in the elections at the federal level were the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, former communist satellite parties, and smaller groups that decided to stand outside the umbrella movements. The division of Czechoslovakia also assisted the movement toward the consolidation of a pluralist party system in the Czech Republic between 1992 and 1996. According to opinion polls in June 1999, the Civic Democratic Party was the most popular party, with a 23.9% approval rating; the Czech Social Democratic Party received 18%, the Communist Party, 15.7%, and the Freedom Union and the Christian Democrats, 11.6% each. The party strongly supported the entry of the Czech Republic into North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and it sought the country's speedy acceptance into the European Union.
