Bohuslav Sobotka

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Bohuslav Sobotka
Sobotka in 2017
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
In office 17 January 2014 – 13 December 2017
President	Miloš Zeman
Deputy	Andrej Babiš (2014–17) Pavel Bělobrádek Richard Brabec
Preceded by	Jiří Rusnok
Succeeded by	Andrej Babiš
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office 29 May 2010 – 15 June 2017 Acting: 29 May 2010 – 21 March 2011
Preceded by	Jiří Paroubek
Succeeded by	Milan Chovanec
In office 26 April 2005 – 13 May 2006 Acting
Preceded by	Stanislav Gross
Succeeded by	Jiří Paroubek
Minister of Industry and Trade Acting
In office 1 March 2017 – 4 April 2017
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Jan Mládek
Succeeded by	Jiří Havlíček
Minister of Finance
In office 12 July 2002 – 4 September 2006
Prime Minister	Vladimír Špidla Stanislav Gross Jiří Paroubek
Preceded by	Jiří Rusnok
Succeeded by	Vlastimil Tlustý
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 1 June 1996 – 31 March 2018
Personal details
Born	(1971-10-23) 23 October 1971 (age 53) Telnice, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouse	Olga Pekárková ​ ​ (m. 2003; div. 2018)​
Children	2
Alma mater	Masaryk University
Signature
Website	Official website

Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech pronunciation: [ˈboɦuslaf ˈsobotka]; born 23 October 1971) is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from January 2014 to December 2017 and Leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from 2010 until his resignation in June 2017. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1996 to 2018. Sobotka also served as minister of Finance from 2002 to 2006.

After forming the Cabinet of Vladimír Špidla in 2002, Sobotka was appointed Finance Minister. In the following year, he was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister and reappointed Finance Minister in both cabinets of Social Democratic Prime Ministers Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. In 2005, he was appointed the First Deputy Prime Minister in Paroubek's government. After the 2006 legislative election, Sobotka became an opposition MP. In 2011, he was elected as the Leader of the Social Democrats and thus stood as the Leader of the Opposition to the Cabinet of Petr Nečas.

Following the 2013 Czech legislative election, Sobotka was appointed prime minister on 17 January 2014 by president Miloš Zeman. Twelve days later, he formed a center-left Coalition Government consisting of ČSSD, ANO 2011 and KDU-ČSL. His government introduced a series of measures to tackle tax evasion, such as electronic registration of sales or a VAT control system, strengthened relations with China, reformed the police, repealed the Civil Service Act, and enforced the smoking ban. He also frequently clashed with President Miloš Zeman regarding the Russian intervention in Ukraine and resulting sanctions, domestic policy and Sobotka's withdrawn resignation in May 2017. Sobotka is the first prime minister in 15 years and the third in the history of the Czech Republic to finish his full term.

On 14 June 2017, Sobotka announced his resignation as Leader of ČSSD due to low opinion polling prior to the 2017 legislative election but opted to stay on as prime minister. He was re-elected MP in his South Moravia and in December 2017 was succeeded by Andrej Babiš. On 31 March 2018, Sobotka retired from the Chamber of Deputies citing personal reasons.