Petr Pithart

Petr Pithart (born January 2 1941 in Kladno) is a Czech politician, lawyer and political scientist.

He served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (then part of Czechoslovakia) from February 6, 1990 to July 2, 1992. He has sat in Senate of the Czech Republic since its inception in autumn 1996, serving as its chairman from December 18, 1996 to December 16, 1998 and from December 19, 2000 to December 15, 2004.

Political career

Pithart was member of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia since 1960, was active in the Prague Spring and left the party after the Soviet invasion; later he was one of the most prominent dissidents against the communist regime. He was imprisoned for this activity including being one of the first signatories of Charter 77. In 1989 he was one of the prominent leaders of the Civic Forum founded at the start of the overthrow of the regime. Having participated in the negotiations which led to the change of the federal, Czech and Slovak governments, he was appointed Prime Minister of the then Czech Socialist Republic.

Pithart is viewed by many an indecisive philosopher and thinker, rather than a tactical or charismatic leader. While his 1990-92 Czech government is and praised for privatisation of major companies to direct foreign owners, he was not capable of dealing with the actions of the federal Minister for Finance Václav Klaus and his increasingly popular Civic Democratic Party nor growing Slovak nationalism which led in the end to dissolution of Czechoslovakia as well as his defeated party, Civic Movement.

Finally, he failed in his bid to become President of the Czech Republic in 2003, losing to rival Václav Klaus due to the government coalition's disunity as well as his unwillingness to do a deal with the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia - a barrier which the more strindently public anti-communist Klaus had no difficulty ignoring or, subsequently, refusing to discuss.

Pithart is, however, the only politician in the post-1989 history of the Czech Republic who has managed to bring a corruption case to court (after the CEO of a bank tried to bribe him in order to get lucrative property). This is seen as a demonstration of his absolute personal honesty - a trait not shared by many other, more successful, Czech politicians.

He became a member of the Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party party and is currently first Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

External links

*cs icon http://www.pithart.cz – Official site