Martin Stropnický (born 19 December 1956) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

politician and diplomat who served as the

minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

from December 2017 to June 2018, and was previously

minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...

from 2014 to 2017. From 2 January 1998 to 22 July 1998 he also served as the

minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizati ...

. Before entering politics, he was an actor, songwriter, author and director.

Career

Stropnický graduated from the

Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Department of Dramatic Theatre (DAMU) is one of three departments at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (alongside the Film and TV school and the Department of Music). The academy was opened in 1945 immediately after the Second World ...

(DAMU) in 1980, and worked in different theatres in Prague over the next decade including the Prague Municipal Theatre and the

Vinohrady Theatre Vinohrady Theatre ( cs, Divadlo na Vinohradech) is a theatre in Vinohrady, Prague. Construction began on February 27, 1905. It served as the Theatre of the Czechoslovak Army from autumn 1950 to January 1966. It contains a curtain painted by Vla ...

. In 1990 he began working at the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which became the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs two years later). He graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 1991, and subsequently served as the Czech Ambassador to Portugal (1993–94) and then Italy (1994-97). For a six-month period from January to July 1998, Stropnický was appointed Czech Minister of Culture in the

caretaker government A caretaker government is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it usually consists of either randomly se ...

Josef Tošovský Josef Tošovský () (born 28 September 1950) is a Czech economist and former governor of Czech National Bank (from 1993 to 2000). From 17 December 1997 to 22 July 1998 he was the prime minister of the Czech Republic in a caretaker government. C ...

. He subsequently returned to the diplomatic service, serving as Czech Ambassador to the Vatican from 1999 to 2003, before returning to the Vinohrady Theatre as artistic director. He was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

in 2013 and served as Minister of Defence in

Bohuslav Sobotka's Cabinet Cabinet of Bohuslav Sobotka was the governing body of the Czech Republic from 2014 to 2017. Bohuslav Sobotka was designated Prime Minister by President Miloš Zeman on January 17, 2014. The cabinet was sworn in on January 29, 2014. It was replace ...

. Following the 2017 legislative election, which saw

Andrej Babiš Andrej Babiš (; born 2 September 1954) is a Czech politician and businessman of Slovak descent who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. Babis previously served as the Minister of Finance and deputy Prime Minister ...

taking over as Prime Minister, Stropnický became Minister for Foreign Affairs, as well as Deputy Prime Minister, assuming both positions on 13 December 2017. However, Babiš' government lost a confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies, and Stropnický was succeeded on 27 June 2018 by

Jan Hamáček Jan Hamáček (born 4 November 1978) is a Czech politician who was leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from February 2018 until October 2021, and minister of the Interior from June 2018 to December 2021. He also served as the spe ...

. On 1 October 2018, Stropnický resigned from Parliament to return to the diplomatic service as Czech Ambassador to Israel.

Personal life

Stropnický is married. In addition to Czech, he speaks English, French, and Italian, with a passive knowledge of Portuguese, Russian, and German. Stropnický is the father of former

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

councillor Matěj Stropnický.

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Stropnicky, Martin 1956 births Living people Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni Czech male stage actors Politicians from Prague ANO 2011 Government ministers ANO 2011 MPs Defence ministers of the Czech Republic Culture ministers of the Czech Republic Foreign Ministers of the Czech Republic Ambassadors of the Czech Republic to Israel Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2013–2017) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2017–2021) Recipients of the Thalia Award