Jan Hamáček (born 4 November 1978) 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 who was leader of the

Czech Social Democratic Party The Czech Social Democratic Party ( cs, Česká strana sociálně demokratická, ČSSD, ) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. Sitting on the centre-left of the political spectrum and holding pro-European views, it is a m ...

(ČSSD) from February 2018 until October 2021, and

minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from June 2018 to December 2021. He also served as the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies from 2013 to 2017, and was acting minister of Foreign Affairs from June to October 2018 and from 12 to 21 April 2021. Hamáček was a member of 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 ...

from 2006 to 2021.

Political career

Prior to his election to parliament, Hamáček worked as an adviser to two prime ministers, and as his party's International Secretary. Hamáček was first elected to the

in the 2006 elections. During his time in parliament, he has held the position of Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, headed the Czech delegation to the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Gerald E. Connolly from the United States, elected in 2019. Its curre ...

and served on the Committee on European Affairs. Hamáček became the leader of ČSSD in March 2018. In Andrej Babis' Second Cabinet, sworn in during June 2018, he was named Minister of the Interior, and also served as acting

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 June to October 2018. Miroslav Poche was originally nominated to be the minister, but due to President

Miloš Zeman Miloš Zeman (; born 28 September 1944) is a Czech politician serving as the third and current President of the Czech Republic since 2013. He previously served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. As leader of the Czec ...

's refusal to swear him in, Hamáček was made acting foreign minister until the situation could be resolved. On 16 October 2018,

Tomáš Petříček Tomáš Petříček (born 27 September 1981) is a Czech politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from October 2018 to April 2021. Between August and October 2018 he also served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and from May to De ...

was named the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. In August 2018, Hamáček helped negotiate the release of two workers from a German humanitarian group in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, and traveled to

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

for the handover of the workers; the Czech Republic is the only country in Europe that maintains diplomatic relations with Syria. In 2021, reported that Hamáček was considering negotiating with Russia not to disclose evidence of Russia's involvement in the

2014 Vrbětice ammunition warehouses explosions In 2014, two explosions of ammunition depots occurred in Vrbětice of Vlachovice (Zlín District), Vlachovice) in the Zlín District of the Czech Republic. The first explosion occurred on 16 October, and the second on 3 December. Two people were ...

in exchange for 1 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine. Hamáček denied the accusation and said that he intended to sue the media outlet. The journalist, , said that he had an audio recording. After ČSSD's poor performance in the

2021 Czech legislative election Legislative elections were held in the Czech Republic on 8 and 9 October 2021. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected, with the leader of the resulting government to become the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Following th ...

, in which the party failed to meet the 5% voting threshold, Hamáček resigned as leader of the party.

Other activities

He is a Senior Network Member at the

European Leadership Network European Leadership Network (ELN) is a pan-European think-tank focusing on European foreign, defence and security issues based in London, United Kingdom. The ELN's Director is Sir Adam Thomson, former UK Permanent Representative to NATO. Histo ...

(ELN).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamacek, Jan 1978 births Czech Social Democratic Party MPs Living people Speakers of the Chamber of Deputies (Czech Republic) Charles University alumni People from Mladá Boleslav Leaders of the Czech Social Democratic Party Czech Social Democratic Party Government ministers Interior ministers of the Czech Republic Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2006–2010) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2010–2013) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2013–2017) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2017–2021)