Bohuslav Sobotka

Bohuslav Sobotka
11th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 January 2014
President	Miloš Zeman
Deputy	Andrej Babiš Pavel Bělobrádek
Preceded by	Jiří Rusnok
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 May 2010 Acting: 29 May 2010 – 21 March 2011
Preceded by	Jiří Paroubek
In office 26 April 2005 – 13 May 2006 Acting
Preceded by	Stanislav Gross
Succeeded by	Jiří Paroubek
Minister of Finance
In office 12 July 2002 – 4 September 2006
Prime Minister	Vladimír Špidla Stanislav Gross Jiří Paroubek
Preceded by	Jiří Rusnok
Succeeded by	Vlastimil Tlustý
Personal details
Born	23 October 1971 Telnice, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Olga Sobotková
Children	2
Alma mater	Masaryk University
Signature
Website	Official website

Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech pronunciation: [ˈboɦuslaf ˈsobotka]; born 23 October 1971) is the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and Leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Moravian Region since 1996. He also served as Finance Minister from 2002 to 2006.

Born in Telnice but soon moved with family to Slavkov u Brna. He studied law at the Masaryk University in Brno and earned magister degree in 1995. After the fall of communism he helped rebuild Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and became a member. Sobotka also co-founded Young Social Democrats, youth wing of the ČSSD. He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1996 legislative election.

After the formation of the Cabinet of Vladimír Špidla in 2002, Sobotka was appointed Finance Minister and then in 2003, he was promoted to the position of the Deputy Prime Minister, reappointed as Finance Minister in both cabinets of social democratic Prime Ministers Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. In 2005, he was appointed as the First Deputy Prime Minister in Paroubek's government. After the 2006 legislative election Sobotka became opposition MP and in 2011, he was elected as the Leader of the Social Democrats, and thus stood as the Leader of the Opposition to the Cabinet of Petr Nečas.

Following the 2013 snap election Sobotka was appointed Prime Minister on 17 January 2014 by the President and twelve days later formed centre-left Coalition Government consisting ČSSD, ANO 2011 and Christian Democrats.

Youth

He comes from Telnice. His family moved to Slavkov u Brna in the early 1980s. There he completed Primary School Tyršova. He studied on Gymnasium Bučovice from 1986 to 1990. He was a student of Masaryk University and gained a Magister degree of Law.

Political career

Sobotka was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996.^[1] From 2002 to 2006, he was Finance Minister of the Czech Republic.^[1] Sobotka was also a Deputy Prime Minister from 2003 to 2004 and from 2005 to 2006.

Minister of Finance

As the minister of finance he formed an advisory body of economists. It later became the National Economic Council of Czech government. His austerity policy included dismissal of employees and restrictions on savings accounts and health benefits, a policy he later criticized. When Jiří Paroubek became the new Prime Minister in 2005, Sobotka reduced his restrictions which led to an increase in the deficit.^[2]

Sobotka was elected to the Chamber again in 2006 but his party lost the election and went into opposition. Sobotka became a Minister of Finance in a Shadow Cabinet of Social democrats. His party won legislative election in 2010 but failed to form a governing coalition and remained in opposition.

Sobotka then served as interim leader of ČSSD after the resignation of Jiří Paroubek following the election. He also briefly served as interim chairman in 2006, after the resignation of Stanislav Gross. Sobotka was elected the Chairman of the party on 18 March 2011 when he defeated Michal Hašek who became the First Deputy Chairman.^[3] On 18 March 2011, Sobotka was officially elected the party chairman.^[1]

Leader of ČSSD

Sobotka led his party in the legislative elections of 2013. The party won the election, gaining 20.45% of votes. The formation of a new government was marked by a conflict between Bohuslav Sobotka and Michal Hašek who, along his allies from the Party, attended a secret post-election meeting with the Czech President Miloš Zeman. They called on Sobotka to resign due to the party's poor election result. Hašek and his allies also eliminated Sobotka from the team negotiating the next government. The secret meeting was later revealed and Hašek was accused of publicly lying about it. It led to public protests in the country in support of Sobotka, which in turn led to Hašek's retreat and a creation of a new government-formation negotiations led by Sobotka.

Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

Sobotka was designated as Prime Minister on 17 January 2014 and appointed, alongside his Cabinet, by President Miloš Zeman on 29 January 2014. His cabinet consists of members of the coalition government - the ČSSD, ANO 2011, and Christian and Democratic Union–Czechoslovak People's Party.

He is the 11th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and the 1st left-wing Prime Minister after 6 years of right-wing political control in the Czech Republic. Sobotka's government coalition has in the Chamber of Deputies 111 seats out of 200 and his ČSSD has 50 seats.

Bohuslav Sobotka's views on the European Union and the Czech Republic's membership in the European Union as Prime Minister are relatively positive. Sobotka noted that ˈˈmembership of the Czech Republic in the European Union is a benefit.ˈˈ He has also said that membership provides better security measures and economic stability.^[4] However, in early 2016, Sobotka said there would be a national debate on the country's place in the European Union in the case of British withdrawal from it.^[5]

On 26 May 2015, he and his coalition government faced the first attempt to overthrow the Government when opposition called on vote of no-confidence to the Government of the Czech Republic because of Finance Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babiš. The attempt was unsuccessful as Members of Parliament did not support the vote of no confidence in the current Government.^[6]

Personal life

Sobotka is married since 2003 to Olga Sobotková, the wife of the 11th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic since its founding. He has 2 sons - David (2003) and Martin (2009). Prime Minister Sobotka likes to read historical mystery, sci-fi, and contemporary literature. He also likes going to theatre and to the cinema where he prefers Czech films.^[7]

References

1. "Bohuslav Sobotka: new mild-mannered, leftist Czech PM". GlobalPost (originally Agence France-Presse). 17 January 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
2. "Mgr. Bohuslav Sobotka". NašiPolitici.cz. Nadační fond proti korupci. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
3. Brožová, Karolina (17 January 2014). "Sobotkova dlouhá cesta" (in Czech). Týden. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
4. "Členství v EU je pro ČR přínosem!" (in Czech). Blog. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
5. Agence France-Presse. "Czech PM sees 'Czexit' debate if Britain leaves EU". GlobalPost.
6. "Opozice s vyslovením nedůvěry Sobotkově vládě neuspěla" (in Czech). ČT24. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
7. "18.05.2015 Tento týden v Týdnu vyšel velký rozhovor s předsedou vlády. (in Czech)". Týden. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.

External links

Official

• (Czech) Official website (Campaign)
• (English) Office of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
• (English) Curriculum Vitae
• Twitter