Nikola Bartůšek (born 11 May 1985) is a Czech politician, who was elected as a

member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

for

Přísaha Přísaha () is a right-wing populist political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2021 by Robert Šlachta. History Foundation Šlachta became known to the public as the investigator in a political corruption scandal in 2013. Following m ...

. She was the head of migration and asylum management in

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

during the

2015 European migrant crisis The 2015 European migrant crisis was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe, mostly from the Middle East. An estimated 1.3 million people came to the continent to request asylum, the most in a single ...

Early life and education

Bartůšek was born on 11 May 1985 in

České Budějovice České Budějovice (; ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 97,000 inhabitants. The city is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše. České Budějovice is the largest ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. She studied migration sociology at the

Johannes Kepler University Linz The Johannes Kepler University Linz (German: ''Johannes Kepler Universität Linz'', short: ''JKU'') is a public university in Austria. It is located in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. It offers bachelor's, master's, diploma and doctoral degre ...

in Austria, and social policy and political science at the

University of Tampere The University of Tampere (UTA) (, ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. The university offered undergraduate, postgraduate an ...

in Finland where she obtained a master's degree in social sciences. During the

she focused on analysing issues related to migration, and became head of migration and asylum management in the Austrian state of

, which involved collaboration with foreign police forces to deport people who were considered ineligible for asylum.

Political career

Bartůšek joined

and became the chair of the party's branch in the South Bohemian Region. In the European Parliament elections in June 2024, she ran as the 2nd candidate on the list of the Přísaha and Motorists coalition, composed of Přísaha and the Motorists for Themselves. The coalition won two seats, which was widely attributed to the appeal of the lead candidate, motor-racing driver Filip Turek. Bartůšek states that her policies are to "return the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

to its roots", with an emphasis on national-level politics and "sovereignty". In the European Parliament, she joined the right-wing

Patriots for Europe Patriots for Europe (PfE or Patriots) is a right-wing to far-right sovereigntist political group, formed as the third-largest group ahead of the tenth European Parliament. The group includes all but one member from the Identity and Democracy g ...

grouping and became a member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartusek, Nikola 1985 births Living people Politicians from České Budějovice Přísaha politicians Přísaha MEPs Women MEPs for the Czech Republic MEPs for the Czech Republic 2024–2029 21st-century Czech women politicians Johannes Kepler University Linz alumni University of Tampere alumni