1. Petr Fiala previously served as the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports from 2012 to 2013.
50 Facts About Petr Fiala
1. 2.
Petr Fiala won the 2014 Civic Democratic Party leadership election, promising to reform the party and regain public trust after a corruption scandal involving Prime Minister Petr Necas.
3.
Petr Fiala's party finished a distant second place in the 2017 legislative election, and remained in opposition despite multiple offers from the incoming Prime Minister Andrej Babis to participate in his governing coalition.
4.
In 2020, Petr Fiala led the initiative for a centre-right electoral alliance with KDU-CSL and TOP 09, known as Spolu.
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Petr Fiala became its candidate for the premiership in the 2021 Czech legislative election, running on a pro-Western and pro-European centre-right platform, focused on fiscal responsibility and closer relations with NATO as part of Atlanticism.
6.
Petr Fiala was appointed prime minister by President Milos Zeman on 28 November 2021 and Petr Fiala's Cabinet took power on 17 December, making him the third oldest person to hold the office, as well as the first with a political science background and the first from Brno.
7.
Petr Fiala came into office promising to reform and stabilize the government's growing national debt; however, the early months of his premiership saw the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the provision of aid to Ukraine, and the opening of the Czech Republic's borders to the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per capita in the ensuing Ukrainian refugee crisis.
8.
Petr Fiala imposed sanctions on Russia and pushed to block Russian citizens from travelling to the European Union.
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Petr Fiala expressed strong support for Israel during the Gaza war.
10.
Petr Fiala's administration faced rising inflation, concerns about the economy, the ongoing global energy crisis, fall of real wages and low approval ratings.
11.
Petr Fiala was born in Brno to a conservative Catholic family.
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Petr Fiala's father, who was partly of Jewish origin, was a Holocaust survivor.
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Petr Fiala studied history and Czech language at the Faculty of Literature of Masaryk University between 1983 and 1988, and after graduating he worked as a historian in a local museum in Kromeriz.
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Petr Fiala was reelected in 2008 and remained in the position until 2011.
15.
Petr Fiala was involved in unofficial Christian activities, especially in the circle of secretly consecrated Bishop Stanislav Kratky.
16.
Petr Fiala was criticized for his activities during the 2021 election campaign because the centre was accepting state subsidies.
17.
Petr Fiala has been active for a long time in institutions and bodies related to higher education and research in the Czech Republic and abroad.
18.
Petr Fiala served as vice-chair of the Czech Rectors' Conference from 2005 until 2009, and chair between 2009 and 2011.
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Petr Fiala was a member of the council of the European University Association between 2009 and 2011.
20.
Petr Fiala is a member of many scientific and academic councils of public and private universities and research institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad.
21.
Petr Fiala has received a number of awards for his scientific and academic work; in 2011 he was awarded the Golden Plaque of the President of the Republic.
22.
The Civic Democratic Party was defeated in the election and Petr Fiala joined the party in November 2013.
23.
In 2014, Petr Fiala announced his candidacy for the leadership of ODS, and was elected as the party's fourth leader on 18 January.
24.
Petr Fiala refused to negotiate with ANO 2011 about joining the subsequent government, and ODS remained in opposition.
25.
On 28 November 2017, Petr Fiala was elected Deputy President of the Chamber of Deputies, receiving 116 of 183 votes.
26.
Petr Fiala then started negotiating with KDU-CSL and TOP 09 about forming an electoral alliance for the legislative election in 2021.
27.
Petr Fiala became the alliance's candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
28.
On 17 November 2021, Petr Fiala introduced Zeman to his proposed cabinet and Zeman agreed to appoint Petr Fiala the new prime minister the same year on 26 November.
29.
In November 2021, Petr Fiala confirmed that he would like to continue with the Spolu coalition into the 2022 Senate and municipal elections.
30.
Petr Fiala's appointment took effect upon his Cabinet being sworn in, on 17 December 2021.
31.
Petr Fiala delivered a speech on the floor of the European Parliament, in which he called for the defense of European values, continuing support for Ukraine, and the inclusion of nuclear energy as a renewable resource.
32.
The Presidency of the Council under Petr Fiala was considered to have "achieved historic results", as stated by the First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans.
33.
On 6 October 2022, Petr Fiala chaired the 1st European Political Community Summit in Prague.
34.
In October 2023, Petr Fiala condemned the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and expressed his support for Israel's right to self-defence and actions during the subsequent Gaza war.
35.
On 26 February 2024, Petr Fiala attended an emergency summit in Paris hosted by Emmanuel Macron, to discuss the military situation in Ukraine, as they had recently suffered the loss of Avdiivka.
36.
Petr Fiala proposed the purchase of 500,000 rounds of artillery ammunition for Volodymyr Zelensky's forces from foreign sources.
37.
Petr Fiala opposes same-sex marriage as he stated in his book.
38.
Petr Fiala opposed the withdrawal of Czech soldiers from the war in Afghanistan.
39.
Petr Fiala expressed opposition to Russian and Chinese involvement in the construction of the new unit of the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant.
40.
Petr Fiala claimed that human impact on climate change is "not entirely clear", which was met with criticism and accusations of populism from environmental experts.
41.
Petr Fiala serves as the chairman of the board of directors of the independent liberal-conservative think tank Pravy breh.
42.
Petr Fiala welcomed the victory of the ruling Law and Justice party in the Polish parliamentary elections in October 2019, noting that ODS and PiS had been cooperating for a long time in a common European Parliament political group.
43.
Petr Fiala stated that he would limit the negative impacts on Czech territory of mining in the Polish Turow brown coal mine near the Czech border.
44.
Petr Fiala criticised Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek, Minister of Culture Lubomir Zaoralek and former Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg for their joint statement on 23 May 2020 condemning the planned Israeli annexation of Jewish settlements that Israel had built in the occupied West Bank since 1967.
45.
Petr Fiala welcomed the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, saying that "Assad's dependence on Russia ultimately failed".
46.
Petr Fiala voiced optimism for Syria's future, stressing the value of freedom and stability over anarchy or terrorist control.
47.
Petr Fiala is married to biologist Jana Fialova, whom he met as a student during the Velvet Revolution.
48.
Petr Fiala is a Roman Catholic and was baptized in 1986.
49.
Petr Fiala played football until the age of 40 and enjoys tennis, shooting, skiing, swimming, jazz music and James Bond movies.
50.
In January 2024, it emerged that Petr Fiala had omitted to declare an ownership stake of almost 1 million CZK in the Podnikatelska Druzstevni Zalozna credit union.