Martin Bursík (born 12 August 1959 in Prague) is a Czech politician. Bursík has twice served as Minister of the Environment and is also former chairman of the

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 ...

Early life and education

In the 1980s, Bursík studied environmental engineering at the

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. In June 1989, he joined the dissident movement and signed the declaration of the anti-communist movement. During the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, he was one of the founders of the Civic Forum. The Civic Movement, which emerged from the Civic Forum and would later become the Party for the Open Society, nominated him as vice-chairman and he was elected into parliament. After the breakup of the Civic Movement, Bursík switched to the Free Democrats. He served as the Minister of the Environment under

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 ...

for a few months in 1998. Bursík unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Prague and joined the Christian Democrats but left this party in 2003. He joined the Green Party in June 2004 and was elected party chairman. After 2006 parliament election he became a

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

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 ...

and was also appointed Minister of the Environment in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. His priority as Minister of the Environment was climate change. As of 2014 he is a professor at New York University in Prague.

References

* Schwarz, Karl-Peter: "Außen neureich, innen grün" in FAZ May 9, 2006 pg. D8. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bursik, Martin 1959 births Politicians from Prague Living people Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (2006–2010) Environment ministers of the Czech Republic Leaders of the Green Party (Czech Republic) Charles University alumni Green Party (Czech Republic) Government ministers KDU-ČSL politicians Green Party (Czech Republic) MPs