Prague, Oct 22 (CTK) – Jiri Pospisil, Czech MEP elected for the rightist TOP 09, applied for TOP 09 membership in the wake of the October 20-21 general election in which the party led by Miroslav Kalousek suffered a defeat, telling CTK that it is too early to speak of his running for TOP 09 chairman.
Pospisil, former justice minister for the Civic Democrats (ODS), emphasised that he has intensively cooperated with TOP 09 for more than three years as its MEP.
After TOP 09’s only narrow entry into the Chamber of Deputies in the weekend’s vote and its number of deputies falling to six from the 26 it has had so far, Kalousek did not say whether he wants to remain at the party’s head.
He said he plans to say it at the party leadership’s meeting on Tuesday.
TOP 09’s national congress is scheduled for the last weekend in November.
Pospisil told CTK that he decided to apply for membership on Saturday afternoon when the calculation of election votes was underway and TOP 09’s result stood below the 5-percent parliament threshold.
The party eventually crossed the threshold in the last phase of the calculation thanks to its better result in cities, mainly Prague.
“It was my symbolic gesture in a moment when some were rubbing their hands and burying TOP 09. I trust in its future,” Pospisil told CTK.
He would not comment on whether he wants to join domestic politics intensively, saying that his cooperation with the party has been intensive in the past years.
Pospisil said an internal debate on TOP 09’s future is ahead of the party and that he is glad that TOP 09 has re-entered the Chamber of Deputies.
“I don’t 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.
Earlier on Sunday, South Moravia TOP 09 chairman Jan Vitula wrote on social networks that he will propose Pospisil for TOP 09’s new chairman.
Pospisil, 41, was previously a member of the ODS, another rightist party, from 1998 to early 2014 when he left the party, citing a bilateral loss of trust, and started cooperating with TOP 09.
He was an ODS justice minister from 2006 to 2012.
