Tomáš Ježek (15 March 1940 – 29 November 2017) was a Czech economist and politician who served on the

Czech National Council The Czech National Council () was the legislative body of the Czech Republic from 1968, when it was created as a member state of Czechoslovakia, until 1992, when it was legally transformed into the Chamber of Deputies according to the Constitut ...

from 1990 to 1992. Concurrently, he was also minister responsible for privatization under

Petr Pithart Petr Pithart (born 2 January 1941) is a Czech politician, lawyer and political scientist who served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (then a federal region of Czechoslovakia) from 6 February 1990 to 2 July 1992. He was also the Senator fo ...

. Between 1993 and 1996, Ježek 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 Bourb ...

. Ježek was born in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

on 15 March 1940. His father, a teacher, was killed by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

when Ježek was five years old. Ježek later graduated from the Prague School of Economics.

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 ...

, Dušan Tříska, and Ježek became known for their strong support of privatization. In 1989, Ježek helped establish the

Civic Democratic Alliance The Civic Democratic Alliance (, ODA) was a conservative-liberal political party in the Czech Republic, active between 1989 (founded shortly after the Velvet revolution) and 2007. The ODA was part of government coalitions until 1997 and partic ...

(ODA). He won election to the

in 1990, representing the

Civic Forum The Civic Forum (, OF) was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The corresponding movement in Slovakia was called Public Against Violence ( – VPN). The Civic Forum's purpo ...

. Also that year, Ježek was named a minister without portfolio by

, a position from which he continued to back privatization. Reelected to the National Council's successive legislative body in 1992 under the ODA banner, Ježek defected to the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in 1995. He left the Chamber of Deputies upon the end of his term in 1996 and returned to teach at his alma mater. Ježek withdrew from the ODA in 1997, and subsequently ran for Senate twice. He died at the age of 77 on 29 November 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jezek, Tomas 1940 births 2017 deaths Politicians from Plzeň Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) MPs Civic Democratic Alliance MPs Civic Forum politicians Government ministers of the Czech Republic 20th-century Czech economists Academic staff of the Prague University of Economics and Business Czechoslovak economists Prague University of Economics and Business alumni Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (1992–1996) Members of the Chamber of the Nations of Czechoslovakia (1990–1992)