Bohuslav Sobotka (; born 23 October 1971) is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as the

prime minister of the Czech Republic The prime minister of the Czech Republic ( Czech: ''Předseda vlády České republiky'') is the head of the government of the Czech Republic and the '' de facto'' leader and most powerful member of the executive branch. The Constitution provid ...

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 The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

(MP) from 1996 to 2018. Sobotka also served as Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2006. Elected as an MP in 1996, Sobotka was appointed Finance Minister in the Cabinet of Vladimír Špidla in 2002, and reappointed in the cabinets of Social Democratic Prime Ministers Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. He also served two stints as Deputy Prime Minister. After the 2006 legislative election, Sobotka became an opposition MP. In 2011, he was elected leader of the Social Democrats and thus Leader of the Opposition to the Cabinet of Petr Nečas. Following his party's victory in the 2013 Czech legislative election, Sobotka was appointed prime minister on 17 January 2014 by President Miloš Zeman, to head a center-left coalition government consisting of ČSSD, ANO 2011 and

KDU-ČSL KDU-ČSL (In Czech language, Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party; ), often shortened to ("the populars"), is a Christian democracy, Christian democratic list of political parties in the Czec ...

. His government introduced a series of measures to tackle

tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...

, such as electronic registration of sales and a VAT control system, strengthened relations with China, enacted police reforms, repealed the Civil Service Act, and introduced a

smoking ban Smoking bans, or smoke-free laws, are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, that prohibit tobacco smoking in certain spaces. The spaces most commonly affected by smoking bans are indoor employ ...

. He also clashed frequently with President Miloš Zeman regarding the Russian intervention in Ukraine and resulting sanctions, domestic policy, and a government crisis in May 2017 which saw Sobotka resign, then withdraw his resignation. Sobotka was 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, resigned as leader of ČSSD due to low opinion polling prior to the 2017 legislative election, but opted to stay on as prime minister. He was re-elected in the

South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region (; , ; ), or just South Moravia, is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia. The region's capital is Brno, th ...

, and in December 2017 was succeeded as Prime Minister by Andrej Babiš. On 31 March 2018, Sobotka retired from the

citing personal reasons.

Early life

Sobotka was born in Telnice, but soon moved with his family to Slavkov u Brna. He received a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Law at Masaryk University.

Early political career

After the fall of communism he helped rebuild the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), and also co-founded the Young Social Democrats, a youth wing of ČSSD. He was first elected to the

in the 1996 legislative election.

Minister of Finance

When the Cabinet of Vladimír Špidla was formed in 2002, Sobotka was appointed Finance Minister, and he was subsequently reappointed in the cabinets of Social Democrat Prime Ministers Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. As finance minister, Sobotka formed an advisory body of economists, which later became the Czech Government's National Economic Council. When Jiří Paroubek became prime minister in 2005, Sobotka which led to an increase in the deficit. He was also a Deputy Prime Minister from 2003 to 2004 and 2005 to 2006. After the 2006 legislative election, Sobotka sat as an opposition MP, and was shadow finance minister in the Social Democrat shadow cabinet. His party won the 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. Sobotka was elected leader of the party on 18 March 2011, defeating Michal Hašek, who became the first deputy leader. He thus became the Leader of the Opposition to the Cabinet of Petr Nečas.

Prime Minister (2014–17)

Sobotka led his party in the 2013 Czech legislative election, which they won with 20.45% of the vote. He was designated as prime minister on 17 January 2014, and appointed as the 11th

Prime Minister of the Czech Republic The prime minister of the Czech Republic ( Czech: ''Předseda vlády České republiky'') is the head of the government of the Czech Republic and the '' de facto'' leader and most powerful member of the executive branch. The Constitution provid ...

with his cabinet by President Miloš Zeman on 29 January 2014. His cabinet consisted of members of the

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

comprising

ČSSD Social Democracy (, SOCDEM), known as the Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) until 10 June 2023, is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in the Czech Republic, political party in the Czech Republic. Sitting on t ...

, ANO 2011, and

. Sobotka's government coalition had 111 seats out of 200 in the

, and his

had 50 seats. As Prime Minister, Bohuslav Sobotka maintained a relatively positive stance on the Czech Republic's membership in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. He stated that "membership of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

in the European Union is a benefit", and that membership provides better security measures and economic stability. 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. On 26 May 2015, Sobotka's coalition government faced its first attempted overthrow, when the opposition called for a vote of no-confidence in the government because of Finance Minister Andrej Babiš. The attempt was not supported by the Chamber of Deputies. 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." Sobotka's government introduced a series of measures to tackle

(including electronic registration of sales and a VAT control system), strengthened relations with China, enacted police reforms, repealed the Civil Service Act, and introduced a

. He also frequently clashed with President Miloš Zeman regarding Russian intervention in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions, as well as domestic policy. On 2 May 2017, Sobotka sparked a government crisis by announcing that he would resign because he could not bear responsibility for Finance Minister Andrej Babiš. Sobotka stated that Babiš had failed to clear up questions surrounding financial transactions connected to his business activity. Sobotka changed his mind on 5 May 2017, and instead decided to fire Babiš from his cabinet. On 14 June 2017, Sobotka announced his resignation as leader of ČSSD due to low opinion polling, some of which showed his party with support of 10%. He said that "the party has to undergo deeper changes so that it will be able to address people better and mobilize its supporters and members" ahead of the 2017 legislative election. However, he opted to stay on as prime minister. After his resignation, Minister of Interior Milan Chovanec became acting leader of ČSSD, while Minister of Foreign Affairs Lubomír Zaorálek became the party's candidate for Prime Minister. However, Sobotka decided to compete in the election as the party leader in the

, where he was re-elected. In December 2017, he was succeeded as Prime Minister by Andrej Babiš. He was the first prime minister in 15 years and the third in the history of the Czech Republic to finish his full term.

Post-premiership

Sobotka returned to his hometown of

Vyškov Vyškov (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 21,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Vyškov consists of 13 mun ...

in January 2018 and stated that he planned to restart his political career. Members of the local ČSSD stated they did not intend for him to run in the upcoming municipal election. On 22 March 2018, Sobotka announced that he would resign as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, effective 1 April 2018, citing personal reasons.

Personal life

Sobotka was married to Olga Sobotková between 2003 and 2018, with whom he has two sons.

References

External links