Miroslav Kalousek (born 17 December 1960) 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 A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

, former leader of

KDU-ČSL KDU-ČSL (In Czech, the initials of the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party; cs, Křesťanská a demokratická unie – Československá strana lidová), often shortened to ('the populars') is a Christian-democrati ...

and

TOP 09 TOP 09 (name derived from cs, Tradice Odpovědnost Prosperita, lit=Tradition Responsibility Prosperity) is a liberal-conservative political party in the Czech Republic, led by Markéta Pekarová Adamová. TOP 09 holds 14 seats in the Chamber ...

, and has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) since 1998. He served twice as

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

in the cabinets of

Mirek Topolánek Mirek Topolánek (, born 15 May 1956) is a Czech politician and business manager who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2009 and the leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) from 2002 to 2010. Between 2006 and 2 ...

and then again from 2010 to 2013 in the government of Petr Nečas.

Early life

Kalousek was born in Tábor. He studied chemistry at the

Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (UCT Prague; cs, Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze, VŠCHT Praha) is the largest university specializing in chemistry in the Czech Republic. Though founded in 1952, UCT Prague has or ...

. Between 1984 and 1990, Kalousek worked as a technician at the company Mitas Praha. After the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

, Kalousek became a member of the state service. From 1993 to 1998, he was a deputy minister at the

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

, responsible for the budget, army restructuring and acquisitions.

Political career

In 1998, Kalousek was elected as an MP for the Christian Democrats. He was leader of the party from 2003 until 2006. The 2006 parliamentary election resulted in no party or coalition of parties being able to form a viable government. Over several months a number of alternatives were negotiated with no result. On 24 August 2006 Kalousek unexpectedly accepted an offer from Jiří Paroubek to start negotiations on a minority government of KDU-ČSL and the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(ČSSD) which would be supported by the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. The presidium of the party expressed no objections.Vedení KDU-ČSL za Kalouskem nestálo, ale neřeklo to
", novinky.cz, 28 August 2006, accessed 30 August 2006 Such negotiations were in conflict with pre-election promises and the vocal anti-communist stance of the party and its electorate.Lidovci v krajích žádají rezignaci vedení strany
ČeskéNoviny.cz, ČTK, 25 August 2006, accessed 30 August 2006KDU-ČSL ukončila jednání s ČSSD, Kalousek rezignuje
ČeskéNoviny.cz, ČTK, 25 August 2006, accessed 30 August 2006 On 25 August 2006 mass protests by KDU-ČSL members, regional organisations and members of parliament went public. The party group in Brno (the biggest regional organisation) rejected the negotiated solution and requested the resignation of Kalousek and the whole presidium of KDU-ČSL. Other organisations made similar demands. Some members of parliament declared that they would refuse to support such a government. That evening the national committee of KDU-ČSL rejected the proposal by a large majority and Kalousek resigned. He has claimed his negotiation with Paroubek was intended to prevent a governing coalition of ČSSD and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which seemed like the most likely alternative scenario. In the end, ODS refused to participate in a "grand coalition" and formed a minority government. In 2007, Kalousek was appointed as Finance Minister in Mirek Topolánek's cabinet, a position he held until the cabinet lost a

vote of no-confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

in 2009. In 2009, Kalousek and

Karel Schwarzenberg Prince Karel of Schwarzenberg (, born 10 December 1937) is a Czech politician, former leader of the TOP 09 party and was its candidate for president of the Czech Republic in the 2013 election. He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies ( ...

co-founded a

pro-European Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...

, center-right, conservative political party,

, which did well in the 2010 legislative election and joined a coalition government with ODS and Public Affairs (VV), with Kalousek becoming

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

for the second time. Kalousek was re-elected as an MP in the 2013 legislative election, but lost the post of

. In 2015, he was elected as leader of

, succeeding

. He announced in July 2020 that he would not be standing for election again, and resigned as an MP on 19 January 2021, arguing that the Chamber of Deputies would become a campaigning platform for the upcoming elections and seats should therefore be occupied by MPs due to stand in the those elections.

References

External links