Prague, Oct 26 (CTK) – Czech MEP and former justice minister Jiri Pospisil has become a member of the TOP 09 conservative party, its Prague branch deputy chairman Martin Dlouhy has told CTK.
According to CTK’s information, Pospisil has been admitted as a member of the TOP 09 branch in the Prague 6 district.
Since the October 20-21 general election, media have referred to Pospisil as a possible successor to Miroslav Kalousek at the head of TOP 09, but his plans and prospects in this respect are not yet clear.
“You definitely know that some would like to see Pospisil in high positions,” Dlouhy said.
With Kalousek at the helm, TOP 09 suffered a defeat in the general election. It gained seven seats in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies, a decline from its previous 26 seats.
Earlier this week, Kalousek said he would not defend the post of chairman at the party’s election congress due in late November.
Pospisil, 41, was previously a member of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) from 1998 to early 2014 when he fell out with it, citing a bilateral loss of trust.
He started cooperating with TOP 09 and was elected to the EP as an unaffiliated contender on the joint list of candidates of TOP 09 and the Mayors and Independents (STAN) in 2014.
Pospisil was an ODS justice minister from 2006 to 2012.
On Sunday, he said he did not want “to send signals about my seeking a party post now that I still am not the party’s member. However, when some members addressed me [in this respect], in south Moravia, for example, I feel very honoured,” Pospisil said.
Shortly before, South Moravia TOP 09 chairman Jan Vitula wrote on social networks that he would propose Pospisil for TOP 09’s new chairman.
