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Mirek Topolánek
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Mirek Topolánek (born May 15, 1956 in Vsetín, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) is the current prime minister of the Czech Republic, from the Civic Democratic Party. He has been chairman of the center-right Civic Democratic Party since November 2002, succeeding Václav Klaus, the current President of the Czech Republic.
k Topolánek attended a military high school in Opava. After finishing he studied at Brno University of Technology where he received an Ing. degree in mechanical engineering. In 1996 he won a scholarship for Training Course in Management of small and medium enterprise (MIM) in Cyprus and also attended a post-graduate Course in the Corporate Management (Centre for Management Training, Celákovice CZ).
He entered politics by becoming a member of a post-communist catch-all civic movement Civic Forum in 1989, and has been a member of the Civic Democratic Party since 1994.
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Encyclopedia
Mirek Topolánek (born May 15, 1956 in Vsetín, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) is the current prime minister of the Czech Republic, from the Civic Democratic Party. He has been chairman of the center-right Civic Democratic Party since November 2002, succeeding Václav Klaus, the current President of the Czech Republic.
Biography
Mirek Topolánek attended a military high school in Opava. After finishing he studied at Brno University of Technology where he received an Ing. degree in mechanical engineering. In 1996 he won a scholarship for Training Course in Management of small and medium enterprise (MIM) in Cyprus and also attended a post-graduate Course in the Corporate Management (Centre for Management Training, Celákovice CZ).
He entered politics by becoming a member of a post-communist catch-all civic movement Civic Forum in 1989, and has been a member of the Civic Democratic Party since 1994. Topolánek co-founded engineering company VAE Ltd. in 1991 and was a member of VAE Inc. board of directors from 1996 to 2003.
Mirek Topolanek is separated from his wife Pavla Topolankova and has two daughters, two sons and two grandchildren.
His hobbies includes tennis, golf and rally driving. He likes books by Steinbeck, Hemingway, Kundera. He admires political personalities of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Jose Maria Aznar and music by Czech folk singer Jarek Nohavica and Pink Floyd.
Political career
Topolánek was a member of the Senate from 1996 to 2004 and its deputy chairman from 2002 to 2004. Since June 2006 he has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies. After the June parliamentary elections in 2006, which produced a stalemate result (100 seats for left wing and 100 for right wing parties out of 200 Chamber of Deputies members). Topolanek was appointed Prime Minister by Václav Klaus on 2006-08-16 and introduced a unicolour government (9 members of the Civic Democratic Party and 6 independents). This government (Topolánek I) failed to gain confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, but he continued to be caretaker Prime Minister until 2007-01-09, when his second cabinet (Topolánek II) was appointed. He put together a center-right coalition government with the Green Party and Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party. It finally gained confidence on January 19, 2007 (230 days after the elections), thanks to two social democratic deputies who abstained, thus effectively choosing a right-wing government rather than the unstable situation ongoing since the June 2006 elections. For more details see Mirek Topolánek's Second Cabinet.
The Involvement of the Czech Republic in the Anti-Missile Defence System
Mirek Topolánek is actively engaged in negotiations with the United States on the location of the radar defending against ballistic fired on Czech territory. The main reason for the opening of negotiations is to allegedly increase the safety of the Czech Republic at the time when there is no such a system in Europe and in the foreseeable future no other but the United States are able to provide it. Closer alliance with the United States will allegedly bring in addition to greater security an enhanced cooperation in many sectors, more investments, access to technologies, education, research, and development to the Czech Republic.
Five Prime Minister‘s Priorities
Mirek Topolánek introduced the so-called "Five Prime Minister‘s Priorities" in October 2007. Basically it is the government statement which includes 10 program areas, which consist of 190 projects of Government’s Program Goals Through Electoral Term accepted by the government. To facilitate orientation and communication with citizens Mirek Topolánek has summarized the 10 program areas to Five Prime Minister‘s Priorities: Healthy Public Finances, Modern and Efficient State, Safe Citizen in a Safe Country, Removing Barriers, Promoting Science and Education.
Controversies
Mirek Topolánek has been criticised for his rhetoric, which occasionally invokes memories of the WWII and Nazi atrocities. In August 2003 Topolánek called the programme of the competing Social Democratic Party (CSSD) to be a "osvetimská lež". "Osvetimská lež" is a common expression in Czech, which can be translated as "Holocaust denial". Holocaust denial is criminal offence under Czech law. Mr Topolánek's remark therefore implied that CSSD's program was a set of criminal lies.
Further in June 2005, one year before the Parliament elections, he said: "From my side, don't expect anything else than a Night of the long knives. This night simply comes.". This actually meant that after the elections of 2006, which he would win, he would make major personnel changes in the government.
In March 2007 he sent to a journalist an SMS message beginning with: "Es kommt der Tag...", which
means "The day will come...". This was used in the 1930s by the Sudetendeutsche Party representing Germans in the former Czechoslovakia and meant, that the day will come, when the Sudeten Area will become a part of Germany.
In October 2008, Topolánek lashed out at a photographer who was taking photographs of his 15-month-old son. BBC reported that at one stage Mr Topolanek pushed the photographer against a wall and said: "What have you done... why are you taking photos of him... why are you taking photos of him... why are you taking photos of him [his 15-month-old son in a pram]... how dare you?".
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