Petr Pithart (born 2 January 1941) is a Czech politician, lawyer and political scientist who served as

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 ...

(then a federal region of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

) from 6 February 1990 to 2 July 1992. He was also the

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for Chrudim from 1996 to 2012 and served as

President of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the Speaker (politics), speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's Order of succession, succes ...

from 8 January 1996 to 16 December 1998 and again from 19 December 2000 to 15 December 2004. On 1 January 2018 Pithart received the Order of the White Double Cross state award (second class) from Slovak President

Andrej Kiska Andrej Kiska (; born 2 February 1963) is a Slovak politician, entrepreneur, writer and philanthropist who served as the fourth president of Slovakia from 2014 to 2019. He ran as an Independent politician, independent candidate in the 2014 Slova ...

Political career

Pithart was a member of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

from 1960, was active in the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secre ...

, and left the party after the Soviet invasion. He was later one of the most prominent

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

s against the communist regime, and was imprisoned for his activities, including being one of the first signatories of

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...

. In 1989 he was one of the prominent leaders of the Civic Forum, founded at the start of the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

. Having participated in the negotiations leading to changes to the federal, Czech and Slovak governments, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Czech Socialist Republic. Pithart is often characterised as a philosopher and thinker, rather than a tactical or charismatic leader. His 1990-92 Czech government was unable to deal with the growing power of federal Finance Minister Václav Klaus and his increasingly popular Civic Democratic Party, nor growing Slovak nationalism, which culminated in the

dissolution of Czechoslovakia The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on December 31, 1992, was the Self-determination, self-determined Partition (politics), partition of the federal republic of Fifth Czechoslovak Republic, Czechoslovakia into the independent ...

and defeat for Pithart's Civic Movement party. Pithart was unsuccessful in his bid to become President of the Czech Republic at the 2003 election, losing to Václav Klaus. In 1998 Pithart joined the Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party. He was elected as senator in 1996, and re-elected in 2000 and 2006. He was the First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic from 2004 to 2012. He retired in 2012.

References

External links

* http://www.pithart.cz – Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Pithart, Petr 1941 births Living people Charter 77 signatories Czech prisoners and detainees Members of the Senate of the Czech Republic Czechoslovak prisoners and detainees Politicians from Kladno Czech political scientists Prime ministers of the Czech Republic Prisoners and detainees of Czechoslovakia Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politicians KDU-ČSL senators People of the Velvet Revolution Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Candidates in the 2003 Czech presidential election KDU-ČSL presidential candidates Civic Forum politicians Civic Movement prime ministers Civic Movement MPs Charles University alumni Presidents of the Senate of the Czech Republic Recipients of the Order of the White Lion