Mirek Topolánek

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Mirek Topolánek

7th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
Incumbent
Assumed office August 16, 2006
Preceded by	Jiří Paroubek

Born	May 15, 1956 Vsetín
Political party	Civic Democratic Party
Spouse	Pavla Topolánková

Mirek Topolánek (born May 15, 1956 in Vsetín, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) is a Czech politician. He has been the chairman of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS, the strongest Czech right-wing party) since November 2002, succeeding Václav Klaus, the current President of the Czech Republic. Mirek Topolánek holds an Engineering degree. He is currently the Prime Minister of Czech Republic and came into office on 16 August 2006. He has selected ministers for his new government (9 ODS and 6 independents). He has to ask the Chamber of Deputies for confidence within 30 days since the whole government is nominated by the President, ^[1] so that he is searching for support from the other parties (KDU-ČSL and Greens will probably support him, but ČSSD and KSČM will not). October 3 The right-wing minority Czech government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek failed to win a confidence vote in the parliament, the first time a Czech government was given a no-confidence vote since the country was independent in 1993. In a second attempt to form a government, Topolánek negotiated a coallition treaty with Social Democrats and Christians. Almost all problematic issues were already solved, but on 12 December 2006, Civic Democratic Party rejected the treaty, causing another delay in negotiation. As for now, Topolánek relies on the government formed by Civic Democratic Party, KDU-ČSL and Greens. Topolánek hopes, that he will be able to find some "quorate" Social Democratic deputies, so that he could win a confidence vote in the Chamber Of Deputies.

He is currently investigated by police for his previous business activities in VAE) ^[2]. His wife Pavla was a candidate of the opposition party in 2006 October senate election ^[3] (Mr. Topolanek claimed that his wife punished him for his affair with the deputy chairwoman Talmanova) ^[4].