Pavel Bém

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Pavel Bém
19th Lord Mayor of the Capital City of Prague
Incumbent
Assumed office  November 28, 2002
Preceded by	Igor Němec
Born	July 18 1963 ( 1963 -07-18) (age 44) Prague
Political party	ODS - Civic Democratic Party
Spouse	Radmila Bémová
Children	2 - Jáchym, Matouš
Alma mater	1st Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague
Website	http://www.pavelbem.cz

Pavel Bém (born July 18, 1963) is a Czech doctor and politician. Since November 28, 2002, he has served as the Lord Mayor of the Capital City of Prague, re-elected 2006. On November 19, 2006, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Civic Democratic Party.

Bém studied medicine at the Charles University in Prague, specializing in psychiatry and subsequently devoted most of his medical career to the treatment of drug addiction. He served on a government anti-narcotics commission. A member of the Civic Democratic Party, since 1998 he has been mayor of the 6th district of Prague and since 2002 has become the mayor of the entire city of Prague. Skilled in dealing with media, he presents himself as a "hands-on reformer" and being tough on corruption. Evidence of which is hard to find. In fact, surveys consistently show that Prague citizens view their city government as extremely corrupt and many claim to have experienced this first hand. Before he became Prime Minister, CSSD leader Jiri Paroubek served as Bem's Deputy Mayor and was in charge of contracts at City Hall. Bem has never expressed any reservations with Paroubek's controversial tenure in this post. He is sometimes mentioned in consideration as a possible future leader of his party and in 2006 is is believed that President Vaclav Klaus attempted to maneouvre Bem into the job as a replacement for ODS leader Topolanek, who is not viewed as close to Klaus. Bem has many interests besides his political career, including mountain climbing, sea diving, and playing the piano. On May 18th 2007, Bem fulfilled his "boyhood dream" of reaching the peak of Mt. Everest[1].

[edit] External links

• Official website (English version also present)

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