A leadership election for the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) was held in 2018 following the 2017 legislative election. Jan Hamáček was elected the new leader of the party, defeating Jiří Zimola in the second round.
Background
In the previous leadership election, held in 2017, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka was reelected as the party's leader and expressed his intention to remain in the position until 2019, when the next leader would be elected. Poor results in opinion polls led to Sobotka's resignation on 14 June 2017. Minister of Internal Affairs Milan Chovanec became acting leader of the party while Lubomír Zaorálek became the electoral leader for the 2017 legislative election. Chovanec announced on 29 July that the leadership election would be held in 2018, most likely in Spring. He mentioned March as a possible date. Lubomír Zaorálek announced his intention to participate in the election.
ČSSD suffered a heavy defeat in the 2017 election, coming sixth with 7% of the vote. Zaorálek stated that he did not intend to step down as party leader, but some prominent members of the party including Jaroslav Foldyna and Michal Hašek called for a change of leadership.
Campaign
On 22 October 2017 Chovanec announced that party's meeting would be held on 7 April 2018. Milan Chovanec and Jan Hamáček were mentioned by commentators as potential main candidates. Chovanec was reported to be planning his candidacy. Zaorálek announced that he would not run for party leader due to the poor result in the legislative election. Chovanec stated on 28 October that the election should be direct and suggested that the new leader could be an independent. He also stated that he would not run for the position. Regional branches of the party were dissatisfied that the election would be held in April and wanted it to be held sooner. On 3 November 2017, it was announced the election would be held on 18 February 2018. Jaroslav Foldyna and Jiří Zimola were mentioned as possible candidates. Roman Onderka received support from the South Moravian branch for running for any position in the party's management. Some prominent members of the organisation stated that Onderka should consider running for leadership of the party.
ČSSD decided to allow independent politicians to run for the position, enabling Vysočina governor Běhounek to stand. Běhounek announced he would run for the position if some members of the party returned to prominent leadership positions, including Jiří Zimola, Michal Hašek and Jeroným Tejc. These individuals stated that they did not intend to return to these positions. Tejc even left the party, saying there was a lack of responsibility for the disastrous result in 2017 legislative election. Běhounek was criticised for his ties with Hašek.
On 20 December 2017, Milan Chovanec stated that he might run for the position of leader, and would announce his decision on 18 January 2018. On 8 January 2018, Jan Hamáček attended a conference of Mladá Boleslav ČSSD. He announced his candidacy at the meeting, saying that ČSSD had to fight for its survival, and that the party had to focus on its traditional voters. Hamáček received his nomination for the candidacy at the conference. On 9 January 2018, Miroslav Krejčík announced his candidacy. Mayor of Olomouc Staněk announced his candidacy on 11 January 2018. He received nominations from three district branches.
On 11 January 2018, Milan Chovanec received nominations from the Plzeň-city and Tachov branches of ČSSD. He stated that he had not yet decided if he would run, but was considering it. On 12 January 2018, the Ostrava district branch nominated Miroslav Krejčík and Jiří Zimola. Chovanec accepted the nomination and announced his candidacy on 28 January 2018. Chovanec is a supporter of Czech president Miloš Zeman and was present at Zeman's electoral headquarters when Zeman was re-elected for a second term on 27 January 2018. Chovanec received nominations from the Zlín and Plzeň regional branches. Chovanec and Hamáček were considered front-runners of the election at that time. Jiří Zimola also announced his candidacy on 28 January 2018. Zimola is a member of a platform called "Let's Save ČSSD" and a supporter of Miloš Zeman. He is also considered an ally of Andrej Babiš and ANO 2011. Hamáček on the other hand is supported by a faction that opposes Zeman and supported Jiří Drahoš during the presidential election.