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Jiří Paroubek (; born 21 August 1952) 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 *Czech (surnam ...
politician, who was the
prime minister of the Czech Republic The prime minister of the Czech Republic ( Czech: ''Předseda vlády České republiky'') is the head of the government of the Czech Republic and the '' de facto'' leader and most powerful member of the executive branch. The Constitution provid ...
from April 2005 to September 2006. He was also the leader of the
Czech Social Democratic Party Social Democracy (, SOCDEM), known as the Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) until 10 June 2023, is a social democratic political party in the Czech Republic. Sitting on the centre-left of the political spectrum and holding pro-European ...
from 2006 until his resignation following the 2010 legislative election.


Early life and career

Paroubek was born in
Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...
and attended
Jan Neruda Grammar School Jan Neruda Grammar School () is a Czech state secondary school situated in Prague. It is named after the writer, Jan Neruda. The school ranks as the second best secondary (high) school, and the best public (state, i.e. attended for free) secondar ...
. He entered politics in 1970 at the age of 18, joining the Czechoslovak Socialist Party, a member party of the Czechoslovak National Front. He reached the lower levels of the party hierarchy before leaving the party in 1986. Paroubek spent his one-year military service as an army food services supervisor in the southern Bohemian city of
Prachatice Prachatice (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument reservations, urban monumen ...
. After graduating in 1976, Paroubek worked as a manager for several state companies including 'Restaurants and Canteens' (). In 1979, as an executive committee member of the Czechoslovak Socialist Party, one of the puppet parties of the Communist regime, he attracted the attention of the communist state secret police (StB). He met agents three times in meetings where he allegedly expressed loyalty to the communist government and disagreement with opposition groups such as
Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...
. He was assigned the code name ''Roko'', after his pet parakeet, but never actually signed a cooperation agreement with the secret police, and after 1982 the cooperation ceased, as Paroubek "did not have enough potential and contacts". Following the
Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...
in November 1989, Paroubek joined the re-established
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 Form ...
(ČSSD), and was given an executive post by chairman Jiří Horák. In 1993 he stood for chairmanship of the party but was defeated by
Miloš Zeman Miloš Zeman (; born 28 September 1944) is a Czech politician who served as the third president of the Czech Republic from 2013 to 2023. He also previously served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. As leader of the Cze ...
. In 2000, he placed fourth in elections to the
Senate of the Czech Republic The Senate () is the upper house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The seat of the Senate is Wallenstein Palace in Prague. Structure The Senate has 81 members, chosen in single-seat constituencies through the two-round system. If no c ...
in the Prague 8 district. Paroubek held senior positions in the
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
municipal government for over 14 years.


Prime Ministership

In August 2004 Paroubek was appointed Minister of Regional Development in
the government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
of
Stanislav Gross Stanislav Gross (; 30 October 1969 – 16 April 2015) was a Czech lawyer and politician who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic and leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party from 2004 until 2005 when he resigned as a result of ...
. After a government crisis in early 2005 related to Gross's personal financial affairs, Paroubek succeeded him to become the 6th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic on 25 April 2005. On 13 May 2005, Paroubek's government passed a
vote of confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...
in the chamber of deputies, with all 101 coalition-party members supporting the government and the 98 opposition members and one independent voting against. Paroubek's government, which was little changed from Gross's, led the country until the parliamentary elections of June 2006. On 30 July 2005, the CzechTek free techno party was broken up by around 1,000 riot police using tear gas and water cannons, claiming the event participants had damaged private property. The police actions left around 80 people and several police officers injured, leading to public protests in front of the Czech interior ministry. Paroubek had spoken in favour of the action beforehand and subsequently defended it, stating that the participants were "not dancing children but dangerous people", but was criticised for the raid by President
Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...
. Opposition parties and the media condemned the government, with some drawing comparisons between the actions of Paroubek's government and crackdowns against students by the
communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...
in 1989.


Role in the Czech legislative election, 2006

Paroubek was selected as the election leader for the 2006 elections and at a ČSSD party congress in mid-May was elected uncontested as the new chairman with 90% of the vote. The election campaign was highly combative due to deep animosity between ČSSD, the conservative Civic Democratic Party (ODS), and their respective party leaders. In May 2006, a report by Jan Kubice, head of the Czech Police's organized crime unit, was released. The so-called "Kubice Report" accused Paroubek of having links with the criminal underworld, as well as participating in a murder cover-up, attempts to derail police investigations and attempting to criminalise investigating officers. The report was initially classified and was presented to the proper commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament, but was made public four days before election day. Paroubek responded by accusing the opposition ODS of conspiracy and "putschist" tactics, and vowed to punish those responsible if elected. After the election Paroubek stated that "ODS did not abhor breaking many laws and did it on purpose four days before the elections to avoid establishing of this evident and repeated breaking of legal order. (...) I feel a duty to announce that democracy in this country incurred a hard intervention comparable maybe only with February 1948. Only with the difference that a blue totalitarianism looms." Paroubek later publicly apologized for these comments. Although opinion polling put support for ČSSD at around 10% when Stanislav Gross resigned as Prime Minister, the party eventually received 32.3% in the elections and finished runner-up to ODS. On 9 September Paroubek released a document claiming it showed that the ODS planned to discredit him. Paroubek refused to name the source of this paper.


Post Prime Ministership

After the 2006 elections, Paroubek remained as leader of ČSSD in opposition, and stayed in this post until his resignation immediately after the result of the 2010 legislative election was announced on 29 May 2010. Although the Social Democrats became the largest party in 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 Bourb ...
after the election, they were unable to form a governing coalition and Paroubek subsequently resigned as leader of the party. On 9 October 2008, an official launch party was held for Paroubek's book ''The Czech Republic, Europe and the world through the eyes of a social democrat'' () in the Monarch restaurant in Prague. Shortly after the end of the event there was an altercation between two of the guests, businessman Bohumír Ďuričko and Václav Kočka jr., the son of a carousel operator. Kočka was killed in the incident. Ďuričko was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. Jiří Paroubek initially distanced himself from the incident and claimed he did not know Ďuričko and had not invited him to the event. However, relations between Paroubek and Ďuričko had been publicly known since at least 2005, when Paroubek had planned to spend the holidays with Ďuričko's family, but cancelled the plans when it became known that Ďuričko was a communist secret service agent. On 7 October 2011, Paroubek left ČSSD and in the same month founded a new party called National Socialists – 21st Century Left. Following the party's failure to win any seats in the Chamber of Deputies in the 2013 election, Paroubek announced his resignation from the party and retirement from politics in November 2014. In 2017, Paroubek repeatedly attempted to rejoin the Social Democratic Party. However, his bids were vetoed by local and regional party representatives. In June 2018, Paroubek wanted to stand as a Social Democrat candidate in the 2018 Senate elections. However, his nomination was blocked by the party committee. He subsequently stood as an independent candidate. In February 2018, Paroubek stated that he plans to run in the next Czech presidential election. He decided to run in the 2018 Senate election in Ostrava. He sought the nomination of ČSSD but subsequently ran as an independent. He received 7% of the vote and finished in 7th place, failing to win the seat. On 23 February 2023, Paroubek launched the initiative ''Nespokojení'' (Dissatisfied), with the aim of connecting parties on the
left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...
of the
political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different Politics, political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more Geometry, geometric Coordinate axis, axes that represent independent political ...
before the 2024 European Parliament elections and 2025 Czech legislative election. However, he subsequently joined extraparliamentary party Czech Sovereignty of Social Democracy, becoming chairman of the party in February 2024. He led the party into the
2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...
, where the party received 0.25% and failed to win any seats.


See also

* Jiří Paroubek's Cabinet


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paroubek, Jiri 1952 births Living people Politicians from Olomouc Prime ministers of the Czech Republic Leaders of the Czech Social Democratic Party Prague University of Economics and Business alumni Czech Social Democratic Party MPs Czech Social Democratic Party prime ministers Czech Social Democratic Party Government ministers Regional Development ministers of the Czech Republic Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2010–2013) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2006–2010)