Bohuslav Sobotka
Sobotka in 2017
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
In office
17 January 2014 – 13 December 2017
PresidentMiloš Zeman
DeputyAndrej Babiš (2014–17)
Pavel Bělobrádek
Richard Brabec
Preceded byJiří Rusnok
Succeeded byAndrej Babiš
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office
29 May 2010 – 15 June 2017
Acting: 29 May 2010 – 21 March 2011
Preceded byJiří Paroubek
Succeeded byMilan Chovanec
In office
26 April 2005 – 13 May 2006
Acting
Preceded byStanislav Gross
Succeeded byJiří Paroubek
Minister of Industry and Trade
Acting
In office
1 March 2017 – 4 April 2017
Prime MinisterHimself
Preceded byJan Mládek
Succeeded byJiří Havlíček
Minister of Finance
In office
12 July 2002 – 4 September 2006
Prime MinisterVladimír Špidla
Stanislav Gross
Jiří Paroubek
Preceded byJiří Rusnok
Succeeded byVlastimil Tlustý
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
1 June 1996 – 31 March 2018
Personal details
Born (1971-10-23) 23 October 1971
Telnice, Czechoslovakia
(now Czech Republic)
Political partySocial Democratic Party
Spouse
Olga Pekárková
​
​
(m. 2003; div. 2018)​
Children2
Alma materMasaryk University
Signature
WebsiteOfficial website

Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech pronunciation: [ˈboɦuslaf ˈsobotka]; born 23 October 1971) is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from January 2014 to December 2017 and Leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from 2010 until his resignation in June 2017. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1996 to 2018. Sobotka also served as minister of Finance from 2002 to 2006.

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 Finance Minister in both cabinets of Social Democratic Prime Ministers Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. In 2005, he was appointed 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 Czech legislative election, Sobotka was appointed prime minister on 17 January 2014 by the President and twelve days later formed centre-left Coalition Government consisting of ČSSD, ANO 2011 and KDU-ČSL. His government introduced series of measures aimed at tackling tax evasion, such as electronic registration of sales or VAT control system, strengthened relations with China, reformed the police, repealed the civil service act and enforced the smoking ban. He also frequently clashed with President Miloš Zeman regarding the Russian intervention in Ukraine and resulting sanctions, domestic policy and Sobotka's withdrawn resignation in May 2017. Sobotka is the first prime minister in 15 years and the third in the history of the Czech Republic to finish his full term.

On 14 June 2017, Sobotka announced his resignation as Leader of ČSSD due to low opinion polling prior to the 2017 legislative election but opted to stay on as prime minister and he was re-elected MP in his South Moravia and in December 2017 was succeeded by Andrej Babiš. On 31 March 2018, Sobotka retired from the Chamber of Deputies citing personal reasons.

Early life

Sobotka was born in Telnice, but moved with his family to Slavkov u Brna. He received a Master's degree in Law at Masaryk University.[1]

Political career

Sobotka was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996.[2] From 2002 to 2006, he was Finance Minister of the Czech Republic.[2] Sobotka was also a Deputy Prime Minister from 2003 to 2004 and from 2005 to 2006.

Minister of Finance

As the minister of finance, Sobotka formed an advisory body of economists which 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.[3]

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.[4] On 18 March 2011, Sobotka was officially elected the party chairman.[2]

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 new government-coalition negotiations led by Sobotka. After leading his party for some seven years, Bohuslav Sobotka resigned on 14 June 2017 as the Leader of the Social Democratic Party after some opinion polls showed his party with support of 10% saying that “party has to undergo deeper changes, so that it would be able to better address people and to mobilize its supporters and members” ahead of the 2017 legislative election.[5] However, Sobotka decided to compete in the election as the leader of the party in the South Moravian Region. After his resignation, Minister of Interior Milan Chovanec has assumed the position of acting Leader of the ČSSD, while Minister of Foreign Affairs Lubomír Zaorálek became the party candidate for Prime Minister.

Prime Minister (2014–17)

Sobotka with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło in Warsaw, 8 April 2016

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 consisted of members of the coalition government – the ČSSD, ANO 2011, and Christian and Democratic Union–Czechoslovak People's Party.

He was 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 had in the Chamber of Deputies 111 seats out of 200 and his ČSSD had 50 seats.

Bohuslav Sobotka's views on the Czech Republic's membership in the European Union as prime minister were relatively positive. Sobotka noted that membership of the Czech Republic in the European Union is a benefit. He has also said that membership provides better security measures and economic stability.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

In December 2016, Sobotka called for higher corporate taxes, stating: "The way taxation is set up right now it only obliges the big and rich players, who export their profits out of the Czech Republic. Annually, these sums amount to 200 to 300 billion Czech koruna."[9]

On 2 May 2017, Sobotka announced that he would resign because he could not bear responsibility for Finance Minister Andrej Babiš. Sobotka stated that Babiš failed to clear up questions surrounding questionable financial transactions connected to his business activity.[10] Sobotka changed his mind on 5 May 2017 and instead decided to fire Babiš from his cabinet.[11]

On 15 June 2017, Sobotka resigned as party leader of ČSSD.[12]

On 5 December 2017, Sobotka's Cabinet resigned following heavy party losses in the general elections in October. Subsequently, Andrej Babiš was appointed prime minister on 6 December 2017, and his new government assumed office on 13 December 2017.

Post-premiership

Sobotka resided to his hometown Vyškov in January 2018 and stated that he plans to restart his political career. Members of local ČSSD stated they do not intend for him to run in the upcoming municipal election.[13]

On 22 March 2018, Sobotka announced that he would resign as a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP), effective 1 April 2018.[14]

Personal life

Sobotka was married Olga Sobotková between 2003 and 2018, with whom he has two sons named David and Martin. In his free time, Sobotka reads historical mystery, sci-fi, and contemporary literature. He also spends his time watching theater performances and watching local films at the cinema.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Mgr. Bohuslav Sobotka | Vláda ČR". www.vlada.cz. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  2. 1 2 3 "Bohuslav Sobotka: new mild-mannered, Communist Czech PM". GlobalPost (originally Agence France-Presse). 17 January 2014. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "Mgr. Bohuslav Sobotka". NašiPolitici.cz. Nadační fond proti korupci. Archived from the original on 2 December 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  4. ↑ Brožová, Karolina (17 January 2014). "Sobotkova dlouhá cesta" (in Czech). Týden. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Czech PM quits as party leader, stays on at head of government". POLITICO. 2017-06-15. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  6. ↑ "Členství v EU je pro ČR přínosem!" (in Czech). Blog. 2 October 2014. Archived from the original on 24 June 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Agence France-Presse. "Czech PM sees 'Czexit' debate if Britain leaves EU". GlobalPost. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  8. ↑ "Opozice s vyslovením nedůvěry Sobotkově vládě neuspěla" (in Czech). ČT24. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  9. ↑ ČSSD promises 'genuine' tax revolution". E15. 22 December 2016.
  10. ↑ "Czech government to resign amid finance minister row". POLITICO. 2 May 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
  11. ↑ "Sobotka demisi nepodá, na Hrad už poslal návrh na Babišovo odvolání". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  12. ↑ "Sobotka končí jako předseda ČSSD, stranu povede Chovanec". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  13. ↑ "Sobotka se přestěhoval do Vyškova, pokusí se tam o politický restart". iDNES.cz. 4 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  14. ↑ "Sobotka rezignuje na post poslance a opouští politiku". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "18.05.2015 Tento týden v Týdnu vyšel velký rozhovor s předsedou vlády" (in Czech). Týden. 18 May 2015. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
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