CESKA REPUBLIKA / CZECH REPUBLIC
(Czech Republic)
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The government is formed by the CSSD |
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Ing.Milos Zeman - Prime Minister Born : in Kolin, Central Bohemia, on September 28, 1944. Education/Profession : After his school leaving examination at a commercial high school, he was denied, for political reasons, access to any university-level education. It took four years before he was able to start extramural studies at the Prague School of Economics, from which he graduated in 1969. During fourteen years, he worked in a physical education organization where he developed a centre for prognostication. ¨The centre was closed down in 1984 for its critical studies of social developments in the country. Mr.Zeman then found employment at an agricultural organization where, however, the same situation arose again, and he was dismissed in 1989. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : During the Prague Spring of 1968, joined Dubcek's Communist Party, but after the occupation of Czechoslovakia he was expelled from the Party because of his scathing criticism of the incoming regime of so-called "normalization". In July 1968 he applied for membership of the re-emerging Social Democratic Party but the regime of the day prevented its restoration, and Mr.Zeman was consequently hard put to find employment. During the1989 revolution, he joined the Civic Forum and became actively involved in its centre-left stream. Was elected to the Federal Assembly in 1990, and became the chairman of its budget committee. He kept in close touch with the Members' Group of Social Democratic Orientation. He joined the CSSD (Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party as it then was) and was re-elected to the Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic in the elections held that year. In 1992 he was also elected Chairman of the CSSD Prague Municipal Committee. At the 1993 national Congress of the CSSD (Czech Social Democratic Party as it is now) in Hradec Kralove, was elected Party Chairman and subsequently confirmed in this position at the Party congresses of 1995 and 1997. In the 1996 general election, he was elected in the North Moravian constituency to the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament and became its Chairman (Speaker) on June 27, 1996. In the early election to the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament in June 1998, was re-elected in the North Moravian constituency, and was appointed Prime Minister of the Government of the Czech Republic on July 17, 1998. |
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Dr.Vladimir Spidla - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Born : on April 22, 1951 in Prague Education/Profession : Graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, majoring in history and prehistory. In the period of "normalization", he took up diverse blue-collar jobs (e.g., as a scene-shifter, a worker in a wood-processsing plant, and in a dairy). He was late employed as a clerk in the Culture Department of the Jindrichuv Hradec District National Committee, an archeologist in the District Museum of the same town, and an industrial plant worker. In 1990 became Vice-Chairman of the Jindrichuv Hradec District National Committee responsible for education, health care and social affairs; between 1991 and 1996 he served as Director of the local Labour Office. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : Without party affiliation before 1989, is one of the founding members of the CSSD Social Democratic Party, serving successively since 1996 as its spokesman for labour and social affairs, chairman of its regional organization in South Bohemia, and statutory Vice-Chairman of the CSSD. |
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Dr.Pavel Rychetsk - Deputy Prime Minister responsible for legislation Born : on August 17, 1943 in Prague Education/Profession : On graduating from Charles University's Law School in 1966 and on passing his judicial examination, stayed on at the school as a senior lecturer and assistant professor until 1970 when he was forced to leave for political reasons. During the following years, he worked as a company lawyer for the Fortuna commercial agency, for the Mladá fronta publishers, and for a housing development co-operative. In 1992, he developed a solicitor's practice and lectured in political sciences at the Prague School of Economics Faculty of International Relations. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : Member of the Communist Party which he left in the year 1969. A co-founder and early signatory of the Charter 77 movement, co-founder of the Civic Forum (OF) and representative of the OF Liberal Club, and later of the Civic Movement (SD), Mr. Rychetsk joined the CSSD Social Democratic Party in 1995. In 1990, he was appointed Public Prosecutor General of the Czech Republic and, in June, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Legislative Council of the CSFR Government. In 1996, was elected Senator in his constituency No.12 (Strakonice) to serve as Chairman of the Constitutional Law Committee of the Senate of the CR Parliament until his promotion to the post of Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. From October 17, 2000 to February 1, 2001, he held the post of Minister of Justice of the CR. From 1992, he served as President of the Pro Bohemia Foundation's Board of Trustees, and, from 1992 to 1996, as Chairman of the Czech Lawyers' Association. |
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Jan Kavan - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Born : on October 17, 1946 Education/Profession : Son of a Czechoslovak diplomat and an Englishwoman, Mr.Kavan holds both Czech and U.K. citizenship. In the 1960s he was one of the protagonists of the radical students' movement and a representative of the Union of Students. Expelled from university studies for political reasons, he emigrated to Britain in 1969. In 1979 he was stripped of his Czechoslovak citizenship and prosecuted for alleged damage to Czechoslovakia's interests abroad. While in exile, took up a course of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, from which he graduated in 1974, and politics and history at St.Anthony's College, Oxford, and the University of Reading. He then worked as a political writer, assistant editor, and, from 1985 to 1990, as head of the Czechoslovak section of the journal East European Reporter, and Vice-President of the UK-based East European Cultural Foundation. He also served as director of the Palach Press news agency between 1974 and 1990. After his return from exile, Mr.Kavan became a member of the Civic Forum's Co-ordination Centre Council, member of the Helsinki Civic Council Presidium, Secretary of the Peace Groups Information Centre, and an MP in the Federal Assembly where he worked on the Foreign Committee from 1990 to 1992. In 1992 and 1993 he lectured at Adelphi University, New York, and Amherst College, Massachusetts in the United States. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : Joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1967 only to be expelled from it that same year. In 1996 he was elected Senator for the CSSD. He was a member of the British Labour Party from 1982 to 1990 ; since 1993, he has been a member of the CSSD Czech Social Democratic Party. He is Vice-Chairman of the Socialist International's regional committee for Central and Eastern Europe. |
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Ing.Karel BÞezina - Minister and Head of the Office of the CR Government Born : on November 25, 1972 Education/Profession : He received his primary education at the Z· Jakutská (Jakutská St. Basic School) which he attended for two years, and then until 1987, at the Z· Omská (Omská St. Basic School, Prague 10) offering extended language education. He then completed his secondary education with a GCE A levels at the Korunní St. Gymnasium, Prague 2, in 1991. The same year, he enrolled in the Prague School of Economics Faculty of National Economics. On completing an integrated course of university studies with a bachelor's degree in 1994, he went on studying at the same Faculty working for his MSc degree (Ing.), majoring in economic politics in September 1997. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : In the year 1991, joined the CSSD Czech Social Democratic Party. In the 1992 - 1994 period, he worked as Vice-Chairman of the Young Social Democrats organization. In 1993, he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Prague Regional Executive Committee of the CSSD; since 1997 he has been a member of the Party Presidium. Since 1996, he has been a member of the Prague 10 District Council. The same year, he also became an assistant to Mr. Petr Hulinsk, MP. From May 1, 1997 up to the early elections of 1998, he served as Director of the Secretariat of the Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament (Speaker). Since July 22, 1998, has been employed with the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic where he held the position of Director of the Prime Minister's Section. On August 21, 1998, the Government appointed him to the post of Head of the Office of the CR Government. |
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Dr.Jaroslav Bures - Minister of Justice Born : on May 8, 1954 in Mimon Education/Profession : On graduating from Charles University's Law School in 1979, was appointed a judge to work, in the years 1980 - 1986 as chairman of the tribunal of the District Court for Prague 2. In the 1986 - 1991 period, he served as Justice of the Municipal Court in Prague, in the years 1991 and 1992 - as Justice of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, the following two years he was Chief Justice of the Superior Court in Prague. In 1995, he was appointed to the post of chairman of the civil-law college of the Supreme Court in Brno, as of January 1, 2000 - to the post of President of the Superior Court in Prauge. In his legal practice, his professional interest was centred on procedural civil law, distraint, bankruptcy and settlement, register law, liability law and land restitutions. Has been teaching at the Law School, Charles University in Prague, and at the West Bohemian University Law School , Plzen. Political career : Minister of Justice |
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Pavel Dostal - Minister of Culture Born : February 25, 1943 in Olomouc Education/Profession : After completing an apprentice training course and a two-year secondary industrial vocational school programme in chemistry, worked as a technician until 1965. Between 1966 and 1969, he was repertory adviser and artistic director of the Experimental Theatre in Olomouc and also worked as a theatre producer and writer, television script writer, columnist, choreographer, librettist and lyrics writer. During the 1969-1988 period could only be employed in blue-collar and technical professions because of the political persecution he suffered for his attitudes in 1968 and for his part in anti-occupation broadcasts in August 1968. Branded as a hostile person during the "normalization" years, was under constant political police surveillance. He was detained for the last time in October 1989 for disseminating the petition. From 1989 to 1993, was artistic director of of the Musical Theatre in Olomouc. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : A Few Sentences. He was a member of the opposition leftist-orientated Obroda (Rebirth) grouping. A Communist Party member between 1962 and 1969, renounced his membership on April 17, 1969 in protest against Gustav Husak coming to power. From June 1990 to December 1992, he was an MP in the Federal Assembly's Chamber of Nations, first for the Civic Forum and then for the CSSD which he joined in 1991. In 1996 was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament, and re-elected in 1998. Between 1994 and 1996 he also served as Deputy to the Olomouc Municipal Council. |
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Ing.Jan Fencl - Minister of Agriculture Born : on June 12, 1942 in Uherske Hradiste Education/Profession : After his graduation from the Brno College of Agriculture in 1964, began his carrer in 1965 as a cattle breeder with the Mistrin Standard Farming Co-operative and served as its Chairman from 1968 to 1974. He was then emloyed by the firm Agropodnik Hodonin and was appointed its Technical Director in 1987. After 1989 he was chairman of the farming co-operatives of Vnorovy and, later, until 1993, of Hroznova Lhota. Served since 1990 as Chairman of the Union of Farming Co-operatives and Companies. From 1990 to 1991, as the first President of the Czech-Moravian Agrarian Union;and since 1993, as Chairman of the Council of Economic and Social Convention. Since 1995 he has also held the office of Chairman of the Czech-Moravian Agrarian Confederation, President of the Agricultural Committee of the International Co-operatives' Union for Europe, and Vice-Chairman of the Confederation of European Agriculture for the Czech Republic. Political career : Minister of Agriculture |
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Prof.Dr.Bohumil Fiser - Minister of Health Born : on October 22, 1943 in Brno Education/Profession : After completing a course of studies of general medicine, had a brief spell of work as a surgeon before he took up a post at the Institute of Physiology of the Masaryk University Faculty of Medicine where he began research work into the cardiovascular system. In 1989, he was promoted to the rank of associate professor, in 1995 to that of full professor. As a researcher in cardiac and circulatory conditions, he has attained international acclaim having published more than 300 medical studies - mainly on problems of cardiac emergency prevention and hypertension. He was repeatedly invited to present lectures in western Europe and in the United States. He presides over the physiology and pharmacology commission of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic. For 15 years, he served on the committee of the Czech Physiological Society, he is a member of the Society of French Physiologists. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : In the years 1966-1971, he was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Having joined the CSSD (Czech Social Democratic Party) in 1993, developed the health commission of the Party's South Moravian regional Executive Committee designed to put forward draft health policies of the CSSD. He was a member of the Brno Municipal Council. For five years now, he has been a member of the CSSD Municipal Executive Committee in Brno, of which he is now the Vice-Chairman. He is also in charge of the CSSD foreign relations. |
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Ing.Miroslav Gregr - Minister for Industry and Trade Born : on December 13, 1929 in Prague Education/Profession : After his 1954 graduation from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Czech Technical University, Prague, held a number of diverse posts in the engineering industry. From 1962 until the end of 1969, he was Director of the DESTA Decin works. Because of his political attitudes, he was dismissed and exposed to political persecution. Until the fall of the totalitarian regime, he was employed with the Stavby silnic road-building corporation. Early in 1990 was reinstated as Director of DESTA Decin and, at the same time, appointed as the first President of the newly-founded Industry Association. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : In mid-1990 he was called to serve as the Minister for General and Electrical Engineering of the Czech Republic. It was during this period that he was instrumental in the project of Volkswagen joining Skoda Mlada Boleslav. After his Ministry was discontinued in 1991, returned to DESTA Decin to serve there as Director General and Chairman of the Board until 1996 when he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament. He was re-elected in 1998. is a member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the CSSD. |
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Mrg.Stanislav Gross - Minister of the Interior Born : on October 30, 1969 in Prague Education/Profession : After completing secondary education at the vocational transport school in Prague in 1984-1988, he worked briefly as an electrician - engine driver trainee in the Prague - Vrsovice railway depot. On his discharge from the national service in Olomouc (1988-1990), went into politics. After a course of training in the years 1993-1999, graduated from the Charles University Law School with a Master's degree. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : Joined the newly restored Social Democratic Party, he was elected Chairman (at first Central Secretary) of Young Social Democrats, a position which he held until 1994. Throughout that period, he served as a CSSD deputy to the Czech National Council and later to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Alongside with the exercise of his mandate for the CSSD, he served as Chairman of the CSSD group of deputies (Party whip), in particular from January 17, 1995 to June 6, 1996, and from June 12, 1996 to April 2000, and, simultaenously, as Vice-Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies (Vice-Speaker), in particular from July 17, 1998 to April 5, 2000. As of January 20, 1996, has served as the Party's spokesman for the department of security; he is also a member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the CSSD. |
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Dr.Milos Kuzvart - Minister of the Environment Born : on November 20, 1960 in Prague Education/Profession : Graduate of Charles University's Faculty of Sciences where geology and geochemistry were his major subjects. Before the1989 revolution, he was an active participant in environmentally-orientated civic campaigns such as petitions against the building of the Cerveny Kamen pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant in the Krivoklat reserve and the Snezka Mountain hotel and funicular.Was employed before 1989 at the Central Geological Institute ; in January 1990 he was called to the Ministry for Environmental Control where he served as an officer in charge of information systems and territorial development, head of the section of analyses and strategies, head of the public relations department, etc. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : In 1995 he entered the private sector, joined the CSSD, became Chairman of the Party's Environmental Commission, and completed a course of studies at the Open University. |
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Ing.Petr Lachnit - Minister for Regional Development Born : on December 30, 1949 in Opava Education/Profession : After graduating from the Technical Institute of Mining, he spent two years at its department of thermal technology doing post-graduate research. From 1976 to 1995, Lachnit held various posts with the share-holding company Vítkovice, both in its production and, later, in its research sphere. He was active in the statutory bodies of the share-holding companies Free Zone Ostrava, Vûdeckotechnick park Ostrava (Park of Science and Technology) and Severomoravská plynárenská (Northern Moravian Gas Company). Petr Lachnit is Chairman of the fund for the Ostravsk dûtsk sbor (Ostrava Children's Choir Fund), a member of the administrative council of the University of Ostrava and a member of the academic board of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Technical Institute of Mining - Polytechnical University of Ostrava. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : In 1990, he joined the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD). In 1995, he became Deputy Mayor of Ostrava. In 1997, he became a member of the CSSD Central Executive Committee and in 1998, the CSSD Vice-Chairman for Communal Policies. |
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Ing.JiÞí Rusnok - Minister of Finance Born : 16 October 1960 Education/Profession : Graduate of the Economics Faculty of the Prague School of Economics. He began his working career at the Central Planning Commission in the Department of Strategic Development and later progressed to the position of Head of Department of Social Strategy at the Ministry of Social Planning. From 1992 to 1998 he served as Economic Adviser at the Confederation of Trades Unions. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : Joined the Social Democratic Party in January 1998. From August 1998 he served as Deputy Minister of Social Affairs. He was nominated as Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic in the Social Democratic Party Cabinet, under Milos Zeman's Prime Ministership, on 14th April 2001. He is also the EBRD Governor for the Czech Republic. |
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Ing.Jaromír Schling - Minister of Transport and Communications Born : on June 21, 1946 in Pelhoimov Education/Profession : Having completed a course of machine fitter training with the Motorpal Jihlava company (1961 to 1964), took a course of extramural secondary vocational training and a correspondence degree course at the Brno Technical University Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (1975 - 1981), specializing in automated control systems. As from 1964 when he started working in Motorpal Jihlava as a maintenance worker, he went through a number of working-class and engineering jobs, e.g., with such companies as the Jihlava Municipal Housing Management, Oseva, or Bohemia glass works, Jihlava, where he served as deputy director for economic affairs, head of personnel, and division director. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : Member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1981 to 1989, as from the year 1991 - a member of the CSSD (Social Democratic Party), a member of the Jihlava Municipal Council and, as from 1996, he has served as a Deputy to the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament. |
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Ing.Jaroslav Tvrdík - Minister of Defence Born : September 11, 1968 in Prague Education/Profession : After completing his secondary education at the commercial high school in 1986, started a four-year course of studies at the Military College of Vyskov, majoring in the field of army economics in the year 1990. In the years 1990-1991, he worked as head of financial services at the Ministry of Defence Schooling and Training Centre, in the 1991-1992 and 1993-1995 periods, as commanding senior office and, later on, as department chief of the Foreign Relations Section of the same Ministry. In 1992-1993, he held the post of chief of financial services of the Czechoslovak contingent of the UNPROFOR 1st Battalion in Yugoslavia. By the year 2000, had attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and been awarded a number of service distinctions : UN Medal for Service in the UNPROFOR Peace Operation, the CR Defence Minister's Medal for Service Abroad, Honorary Memorial Badge For Service to Peace, a CR Army Medal of the 3rd Degree, and a 50 Years of NATO Honorary Memorial Badge. Political career : In the year 1996, he was appointed Director of the Chief Office of the CR Ministry of Defence Interior Administration and, later in the year, Director of the CR Ministry of Defence Military Balneological and Recreational Facilities. |
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Eduard Zeman - Minister of Education, Youth and PT Born : on April 11, 1948 Education/Profession : After completing his secondary-school education in Pribram, graduated from the Teachers' Training College of Ceske Budejovice. He began his teaching career at a basic school and then taught at the grammar school in Trhove Sviny. He was a Communist Party member from 1966 to 1970. In 1989, he joined the Civic Forum to serve, inter alia, as member of the Civic Forum's Co-ordination Centre for Teachers. Party : CSSD (Ceská Strana Sociálne Demokratická / Czech Social Democratic Party) Political career : He has been a member of the CSSD Social Democratic Party since 1990 and its spokesman for education and school policies. In 1992 was elected to the Czech National Council and, in the general election of 1996, to the Chamber of Deputies of the CR Parliament where he has been concerned mainly with with the problems of education, the school system and culture. Since 1990, has also served as a member of the Basic School Teachers' Association Republic Council. |
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