Vratislav Kulhánek (born 20 November 1943) is a Czech

business manager The Oxford English Dictionary defines a business manager as "a person who manages the business affairs of an individual, institution, organization, or company". Compare manager. Business managers drive the work of others (if any) in order to op ...

and former chairman of the

Czech Ice Hockey Association The Czech Ice Hockey Association (), also known by the shortened name Czech Ice Hockey (), is the Sport governing body, governing body of ice hockey and sledge hockey in Czechia. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) ...

. He stood as a candidate in the 2018 presidential election as a nominee of 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 ...

, finishing ninth of nine candidates.

Business career

He studied at the

University of Economics, Prague The Prague University of Economics and Business (PUEB) (originally: ''the University of Economics, Prague''; '', VŠE'') is an economics and business-oriented public university located in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest university in ...

and the European Business School. He later worked in variety of companies. In 1992, he became the chairman of Robert Bosch in České Budějovice. He worked at

Škoda Auto Škoda Auto Akciová společnost, a.s. (), often shortened to Škoda, is a Czech automobile manufacturer established in 1925 as the successor to Laurin & Klement and headquartered in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Škoda Works became State ow ...

from 1997. He left Škoda in 2007 and became Chairman of the

in 2004. He remained in the position until 2008. He later started working for

Kooperativa Förbundet KF (, "Co-operative Union") is a federation of consumer co-operatives in Sweden and a retail group, with groceries as its core business. History KF was founded in 1899 by 41 local consumer co-operatives in order to support them with informatio ...

Presidential election 2018

He announced his candidacy for Czech president on 29 June 2017, as the candidate of the

(ODA), which collected the signatures needed to run and also supported him financially. Incumbent president

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 ...

commented that he did not know Kulhánek very well but remembered him as a successful manager of

. ODA leader Sehnal stated that Kulhánek would be a right-wing candidate. Kulhánek finished last of the nine candidates, with 0.47% of the vote. Kulhánek endorsed

Jiří Drahoš Jiří Drahoš (born 20 February 1949; ) is a Czech physical chemist and politician who has been the Senator of Prague 4 since October 2018. Previously, Drahoš served as President of the Czech Academy of Sciences from 2009 to 2017, and was a ca ...

for the second round.

Political views

A conservative, Kulhánek stated that he has always been close to ODA and Freedom Union, and he also has sympathy for some politicians of the Civic Democratic Party. Kulhánek opposes Muslim immigration, and has stated that he does not want Mosques in the Czech Republic. On 17 July 2017, he stated that the Czech Republic was able to accept 5,000–10,000 refugees, adding that he would only accept those that were verifiably in danger, and would not accumulate them in one place, so that they would be obliged to adapt if they wanted to live in the country. Kulhánek is pro-European and supports adoption of the

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

in the Czech Republic, but he opposes the politics of

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

and

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

. He is also supportive of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulhanek, Vratislav 1943 births Living people Candidates in the 2018 Czech presidential election People from České Budějovice Prague University of Economics and Business alumni Communist Party of Czechoslovakia members