Pavel Bém

Pavel Bém

Pavel Bém (born July 18, 1963 in Prague ) is a Czech politician and doctor. From 2002 to 2010 he was Lord Mayor (Primátor) in Prague. From 2010 to 2013 he was a member of the Czech Chamber of Deputies. From 2004 to 2008 he was deputy chairman of the ODS party .

Professional background

After graduation in 1981 studied Bém at the Charles University until 1987, general medicine . He completed his specialist training in psychiatry by 1990 . He then took a two-year course at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA) dealing with public health, care organization and management, as well as the coordination and direction of anti-drug policy, the latter continuing in Prague. In 1994 he completed a postgraduate course in the field of addiction prevention and curing addictive diseases in Prague.

In 1987 he accepted a position as senior physician in a psychiatric institution in Mladá Boleslav . In 1988 he moved to the alcohol withdrawal department of the clinic and in 1990 to the general faculty clinic in Prague. Here he was the chief doctor in the center for drug addicts. In 1992 he became director of the Department for the Mentally Ill and Drug Addicts and until 1994 also headed the Contact Center for Drug Addicts. In 1995 he was elected Secretary General, responsible for the non-partisan anti-drug commission.

politics

From 1996 he worked for the Czech government and became an advisor to the Interior Minister for anti-drug policy .

He is a member of the Democratic Citizens' Party ( ODS) and held the first deputy chairmanship from 2006 to the end of 2008. Between 1998 and 2002 he was mayor of the Prague 6 district . After the flood of the century in 2002 , he was elected Primator of the capital of Prague in 2002. His political style is considered ambitious, down-to-earth and is compared to that of American politicians. Towards the end of his tenure as mayor of Prague, however, Bém struggled with falling popularity.

On December 7, 2008, Bém failed with the attempt to become party leader of the ODS through a ballot against Mirek Topolánek . The background was internal party disputes over European politics. Like President Václav Klaus, Bém is seen as a representative of a Eurosceptic course.

In May 2010, Bém was elected a member of the Czech House of Representatives. In the Prague city council elections in October, he was no longer a top candidate. His successor in the office of mayor was his party friend Bohuslav Svoboda .

Corruption allegations

Telephone recordings published in March 2012 brought Bém under suspicion of corruption. As the mayor of Prague, he had reassured himself in important decisions with a friendly lobbyist. The ODS is calling for a mandate waiver and for leaving the party. Bém did not resign, but resigned from the ODS faction and suspended his membership in the party. On January 18, 2013, Bém was re-admitted to the ODS.

Personal

Bém is an alpine athlete and extreme climber, among other things he dedicated the Seven Summits . On May 18, 2007 he became the 10th Czech to conquer Mount Everest . Bém completed the majority of his tours without additional oxygen, using oxygen bottles from 8000 m on the highest peak on earth for reasons of time.

Web links

Commons : Pavel Bém  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature and other media by and about Pavel Bém in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic
• Report on the ascent of Mount Everest (Czech)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ News ticker ( 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. from Radio Prague (December 7, 2008), accessed March 27, 2012. 
2. ^ Election amid loud protests: Prague has a new mayor. - Report by Radio Prague of December 1, 2010, accessed on March 27, 2012.
3. ↑ Prague's urban policy seen from the inside: The taped telephone conversations between the lobbyist Janoušek and the former mayor Bém - broadcast by Radio Prague on March 26, 2012, accessed on March 27, 2012 (MP3 format, 8:58 minutes, 2.1 MiB ).
4. ↑ Ex-Mayor of Prague Bém is again an ODS member ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2013 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. - Announcement from Radio Prague of January 18, 2013, accessed on January 18, 2013. 
5. ↑ Interview on iDNES.cz, accessed on March 27, 2012 (Czech).

predecessor	Office	successor
Igor Němec	Lord Mayor of Prague 2002–2010	Bohuslav Svoboda