Cyril Svoboda is a Czech politician, who was leader of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) in 2001–2003 and 2009–2010, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1998–2010. During his political career he held several ministerial positions, including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He founded the Diplomatic Academy in Prague in 2011 and is currently lecturing at several universities in Prague.

KDU-ČSL, often shortened to lidovci, is a Christian-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. The party has taken part in almost every Czech government since 1990. In the June 2006 legislative election, the party won 7.2% of the vote and 13 out of 200 seats; but in the 2010 election, its vote share dropped to 4.4% and they lost all of its seats. The party regained its parliamentary standing in the 2013 legislative election, winning 14 seats in the new parliament, thereby becoming the first party ever to return to the Chamber of Deputies after previously dropping out.