Bohuslav Sobotka

Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

23 October 1971 Telnice, Czechoslovakia

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17 January 2014 – 6 December 2017

Czech former politician Bohuslav Sobotka11th Prime Minister of the Czech RepublicIn office 17 January 2014 – 6 December 2017PresidentMiloš ZemanDeputyAndrej Babiš (2014–17) Pavel Bělobrádek Richard BrabecPreceded by Jiří RusnokSucceeded by Andrej BabišLeader of the Social Democratic PartyIn office 29 May 2010 – 15 June 2017 Acting: 29 May 2010 – 21 March 2011 Preceded by Jiří ParoubekSucceeded by Milan ChovanecIn office 26 April 2005 – 13 May 2006 Acting Preceded by Stanislav GrossSucceeded by Jiří ParoubekMinister of Industry and Trade Acting In office 1 March 2017 – 4 April 2017Prime Minister HimselfPreceded by Jan MládekSucceeded by Jiří HavlíčekMinister of FinanceIn office 12 July 2002 – 4 September 2006Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla Stanislav Gross Jiří ParoubekPreceded by Jiří RusnokSucceeded by Vlastimil TlustýMember of the Chamber of DeputiesIn office 1 June 1996 – 31 March 2018 Personal detailsBorn (1971-10-23 ) 23 October 1971 (age 49) Telnice, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) Political partySocial Democratic PartySpouse(s)Olga Sobotková (2003–2018)Children2Alma materMasaryk University SignatureWebsiteOfficial website Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech pronunciation: ; born 23 October 1971) is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from January 2014 to December 2017 and Leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from 2010 until his resignation in June 2017. He was Member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1996 to 2018. Sobotka also served as Finance Minister from 2002 to 2006. Sobotka was born in Telnice but soon moved with his family to Slavkov u Brna. He studied law at the Masaryk University in Brno and earned magister degree in 1995. After the fall of communism he helped rebuild Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and became a member. Sobotka also co-founded Young Social Democrats, youth wing of the ČSSD. He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1996 legislative election. After the formation of the Cabinet of Vladimír Špidla in 2002, Sobotka was appointed Finance Minister and then in 2003, he was promoted to the position of the Deputy Prime Minister, reappointed Finance Minister in both cabinets of Social Democratic Prime Ministers Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. In 2005, he was appointed the First Deputy Prime Minister in Paroubek's government. After the 2006 legislative election, Sobotka became opposition MP and in 2011 he was elected as the Leader of the Social Democrats, and thus stood as the Leader of the Opposition to the Cabinet of Petr Nečas. Following the 2013 snap election, Sobotka was appointed prime minister on 17 January 2014 by the President and twelve days later formed centre-left Coalition Government consisting of ČSSD, ANO 2011 and KDU-ČSL. His government introduced series of measures aimed at tackling tax evasion, such as electronic registration of sales or VAT control system, strengthened relations with China, reformed the police, repealed the civil service act and enforced the smoking ban. He also frequently clashed with President Miloš Zeman regarding the Russian intervention in Ukraine and resulting sanctions, domestic policy and Sobotka's withdrawn resignation in May 2017. Sobotka is the first prime minister in 15 years and the third in the history of the Czech Republic to finish his full term. On 14 June 2017, Sobotka announced his resignation as Leader of ČSSD due to low opinion polling prior to the 2017 legislative election but opted to stay on as prime minister and he was re-elected MP in his South Moravia and in December 2017 was succeeded by Andrej Babiš. On 31 March 2018, Sobotka resigned from the Chamber of Deputies citing personal reasons.