Cyril Svoboda

Cyril Svoboda (born November 24, 1956 in Prague ) is a Czech politician . He was chairman of the KDU-ČSL from 2001 to 2003 and from May 2009 to May 2010 .

Life

After studying law , he first worked as a legal advisor in business and later at the Charles University in Prague . From 1992 to 1996 he was first deputy minister of justice, later deputy minister for foreign affairs for matters relating to the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. In 1998 he held the post of Minister of the Interior in the interim government of Josef Tošovský . In 1998 he was elected to the Czech Chamber of Deputies for the first time, where he chaired the Petitions Committee until 2002. From 2001 to 2003 he was chairman of the KDU-ČSL, but lost to the right wing candidate Miroslav Kalousek in the new election . From 2002 to 2006, during the coalition with the ČSSD , he was Foreign Minister. In the coalition government of Mirek Topolánek ( ODS ) he held the post of minister without portfolio and briefly the post of minister for rural development. On May 30, 2009 Svoboda prevailed at the party congress in Vsetín in the second ballot against his opponent Jan Březina as the successor to Jiří Čunek . After several members of the parliamentary group left, including the former party chairman Miroslav Kalousek and the previous group chairman Severa, Svoboda was also elected group chairman of the KDU-ČSL in the Chamber of Deputies on June 9, 2009. After the KDU-ČSL suffered a historic defeat in the parliamentary elections in 2010 and failed at the 5% hurdle, Svoboda resigned from the party chairmanship on the evening of the election.