Prague, Jan 16 (CTK) – A brief profile of Czech Civic Democrat (ODS) chairman Petr Fiala, 51, who defended his post at the party’s election congress in Ostrava, north Moravia, Saturday:
Date and place of birth: September 1, 1964, Brno.
Education: He graduated from Masaryk University (MU) in Brno, majoring in history and Czech studies; became senior lecturer in 1996 and political science professor in 2002.
Professional career: After university studies, he worked as a historian in the Kromeriz Regional Museum and an editor of then daily Lidova demokracie and Atlantis publishers (1990). He co-founded the political science department at the MU’s Faculty of Arts and became its head in 1993; he headed the Brno-based International Political Science Institute (1996-2004); he was MU rector (2004-2011) and then MU vice rector until May 2012, he chaired the Czech Conference of Rectors (2009-2011).
Political career: He was major science adviser to prime minister Petr Necas (ODS) from September 2011 to April 2012; unaffiliated education minister in Necas’s coalition government in May 2012-July 2013 and member of the Research, Development and Innovations Council; he headed the ODS list of candidates who ran in the South Moravia Region in the October 2013 early general election and he was elected deputy to the lower house of parliament; he joined the ODS in November 2013; he was elected ODS chairman in January 2014 and re-elected on January 16, 2016.
Family: Married, has three children.
Others:
– After the collapse of the communist regime in November 1989, Fiala ranked among the first scholars to fully deal with political science; he was appointed the first political science professor in the Czech Republic in 2002. He focuses on comparative political science and European politics. He has authored or co-authored dozens of specialist monographs and 200 expert studies.
– Fiala became education minister in 2012 after the resignation of Josef Dobes (Public Affairs, VV) who was connected with many scandals. Fiala succeeded in stabilising the turbulent situation in the sector quite quickly.
– He announced his candidature for ODS chairman in December 2013. He was a fresh ODS member then, but he said he has been cooperating with the party since the early 1990s. The party’s result in the general election has been the worst in the ODS history, it won only 16 MPs in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies. Fiala said the ODS must return to its right-wing programme to get over the crisis.
