Senator Karel Schwarzenberg elected chair of TOP 09

Senator and former foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg was elected the chairman of the new Czech political party TOP 09 at its constituent conference in Prague on Saturday. Delegates also elected other members of party leadership. MP, former finance minister and one the party’s founders Miroslav Kalousek was elected the 1st deputy chair.

The party, which defines itself as conservative, pro-European and anti-populist, was founded in June this year as a right-wing split from the Christian Democrats. It has since become quite popular in the Czech Republic. Polls repeatedly showed it could become the third strongest party in the Chamber of Deputies after the next general election scheduled for May, 2010.