Mirek Topolánek

Mirek Topolánek (2007)

Mirek Topolánek [ ˈmɪrɛk ˈtɔpɔlaːnɛk ] (born  May 15, 1956 in Vsetín ) is a Czech politician ( ODS ). He was Prime Minister of his country from September 2006 to May 2009 . As prime minister he was during the Czech presidency until his replacement by in the first months of 2009, Jan Fischer also Chairman of the European Council .

Life

education and profession

Topolánek studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Brno . After graduating in the late 1970s, he worked for several years as a planning and project engineer at the Czech coal producer OKD in Ostrava and at Energoprojekt there. In 1991 he founded the company VAE, which operates in the energy sector.

politics

Topolánek has been politically active since 1989, initially at the local level, and from 1996 as a member of the Czech Senate. In 2002 he became Deputy Senate President and successor to Václav Klaus as Chairman of the ODS .

In the parliamentary elections in July 2006, it received the most votes and was represented in the new parliament with 81 members out of 200. Together with the announced coalition partners (Christian Democrats and Greens), it achieved exactly 100 seats, as many as the left-wing political parties had in parliament, which consisted of the Social Democrats of the ČSSD under the leadership of the previous Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek and the Communists of the KSČ . There was therefore a political stalemate in parliament.

Topolánek therefore speculated on the formation of a minority government , which should be supported by the Social Democrats by means of an opposition treaty. Topolánek did not succeed in persuading the Social Democrats to tolerate this government. In September 2006 he formed such a government, to which 10 members of the ODS and 6 non-party members belonged. This government Mirek Topolánek I , with only 96:99 votes, did not get the necessary approval from parliament because of the rejection by the Social Democrats. Topolánek had to offer the president his resignation in accordance with the constitutional requirements, but remained provisionally in office with his government. After two Social Democratic MPs (Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka) had meanwhile left the parliamentary group and announced that they did not want to stand in the way of Topolánek's formation of a majority capable government, Topolánek ultimately formed the originally intended Topolánek II cabinet made up of the ODS, Christian Democrats and Greens. Although President Klaus declared his reservations about such a government, which is dependent on defectors, on January 9, 2007, he nevertheless appointed the ministers. On January 19, 2007, the government was given the confidence of Parliament (100-97 votes - one abstention) because the defectors had left the room during the vote. However, after individual MPs had left their own parliamentary group during the legislative period and the Green group had split, Topolánek was no longer able to rely on a secure majority in parliament since the end of 2008 at the latest.

A severe defeat of his party in the elections to the Senate and the regional parliaments in October 2008 further weakened his position. On December 7th, 2008 Topolánek was able to prevail against Pavel Bém , who, like President Václav Klaus, represents the Eurosceptic wing of the party in a vote for the chairmanship of the ODS . On March 24, 2009 - during the EU Council Presidency of the Czech Republic - Topolánek lost a vote of confidence in parliament initiated by the Social Democrats and submitted his resignation on March 26. Until the appointment of the Jan Fischer government on May 8, 2009, he remained provisionally in office.

After the holding of early elections in October 2009 failed due to legal concerns of some MPs against a constitutional amendment necessary for the new election, Topolánek resigned his seat on September 15, 2009. After disparaging remarks about Jews, homosexuals and the churches, Topolánek, under pressure from the ODS leadership, renounced his top candidacy for the regular parliamentary elections in 2010 and resigned as chairman of the party in April 2010. Petr Nečas became the new top candidate and party leader .

Topolánek then left politics and has since devoted himself to management activities in the energy sector. In April 2015, it became known that Topolánek was no longer a member of the ODS because he had not paid the party membership for a long time.

Topolánek ran in the 2018 presidential election and came in sixth in the first round with 4.30%.

Private

Topolánek has been married to Lucie Talmanová , his party colleague at ODS , since June 2010 . With his first wife Pavla, he has two daughters and a son and a granddaughter; the couple divorced in 2010 after years of separation. Shortly after the 2006 elections, however, the news of a relationship with Lucie Talmanová, at that time one of the vice-chairmen of the House of Representatives, who gave birth to a son who was still illegitimate in 2007, sparked discussions among the Czech public. However, this has not harmed the popularity of the incumbent Prime Minister, as the Czech public is tolerant of politicians in this regard. The relationship with Talmanová, however, meant that Pavla Topolánková stood in protest against her husband as a candidate for the splinter party " Politika 21 " in the 2006 Senate elections and achieved a respectable success in her constituency with more than 10% of the votes.

Topolánek was hardly harmed by a nude photo scandal about participation in a feudal party of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . Despite these photos becoming known, the ODS became the strongest party in the 2009 European elections in the Czech Republic .

Topolánek speaks English and understands German, Russian and Polish.

Web links

Commons : Mirek Topolánek  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Volby 2018 Mirek Topolánek, Candidate na prezidenta - E15.cz . In: Zprávy E15.cz . ( online [accessed December 19, 2017]). Volby 2018: Mirek Topolánek, kandidát na prezidenta - E15.cz ( Memento of the original dated December 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Radio Prague website, accessed on December 7, 2008 ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : EU Council President is losing confidence in his own country  
4. ↑ tagesschau.de : Resignation in an icy atmosphere
5. ↑ The standard : Topolánek renounces the top candidacy
6. ↑ tschechien -online Topolánek announces resignation from the party chairmanship.
7. ^ Radio Prague ex-head of the Citizens' Democrats lets party membership fall asleep.
8. ↑ Bývalý Prime Minister Topolánek se oženil s lucii Talmanovou
9. ↑ Curriculum vitae on Topolánek's official homepage ( memento of the original from September 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.