STAN grew out of the
Independent Mayors for the Region (
Nezávislí starostové pro kraj; NSK), founded in 2004. In 2009, led by its first leader
Petr Gazdík and deputy leader
Stanislav Polčák, STAN started co-operating with the liberal-conservative TOP 09 at all levels, with Gazdík leading the TOP 09 and STAN parliamentary group. In the
2010 local elections, the party won 1,243 councillors, making it the sixth-largest party on local councils. In 2013, the co-operation with TOP 09 ended at local and regional levels, and continued only in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the
2013 election to the
Chamber of Deputies, STAN won five seats on the TOP 09 list:
Jan Farský,
Stanislav Polčák, , and acting leader
Petr Gazdík. In March 2014, , governor of the
Liberec Region, was unanimously elected leader of STAN, and Gazdík became the first deputy leader with Polčák as the second deputy. Running a joint list for the
2014 European Parliament election, STAN and TOP 09 received 15.95% of the vote and won four seats, one of which was taken by STAN's Stanislav Polčák. In 2016, Martin Půta was succeeded by Petr Gazdík, who led STAN into the regional and Senate elections. In the
2017 election to the
Chamber of Deputies, STAN won six seats:
Petr Gazdík,
Jan Farský, ,
Vít Rakušan, (who was replaced by ) and . In 2019
Vít Rakušan was elected as leader. In 2020 STAN won the Senate elections, taking 11 of the 27 seats contested. The party contested the
2021 Czech parliamentary election as part of the
Pirates and Mayors coalition with the
Czech Pirate Party. Thanks to preferential voting, STAN took most of the coalition's 37 seats, winning 33 and becoming the third strongest party in the Chamber of Deputies. ==Positions==