Civic Forum

This article is about the Civic Forum of the Czech Republic. See also the Guinean Civic Forum of Guinea-Bissau.

Civic Forum (Czech: Občanské fórum - OF) was a political party in the Czech Republic right after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Its purpose was to unify all anti-totalitarian forces and win the free elections in 1990, which it did. Václav Havel was its leader until elected president on December 29, 1989. Jan Urban became the new Civic Forum chair, serving until June, 1990. He resigned his post, saying he did not want a rift between the organization and the president. Václav Klaus was elected its new chairman on October 16th, 1990. Thereafter the organization adopted his policies, resulting in criticism from Forum politicians like Jiří Dienstbier and Valtr Komárek. These politicians felt that diversity should be maintained within the Forum, as the transition to democracy was not complete.

At the Civic Forum congress in January, 1990, Klaus's supporters stated that they would form a party with a clearer program, advocating a free market, called Občanská Demokratická Strana (Civic Democratic Party). The party elected him as its chairman in February 1990. Klaus then stated that ODS and Civic Movement, formed by the remainder of Civic Forum members, would rule as a coalition until the 1992 elections. However, by July 1991 Klaus said that the two had finished cooperating.

In Slovakia, the corresponding movement was called Public Against Violence (Slovak: Verejnosť proti násiliu - VPN).

Civic forum covered politicians with very different opinions and it split when the Civic Democratic Party of Václav Klaus separated.