Klára Dostálová (born 13 March 1971)[1] is a Czech politician and economist who has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic since 2017. She served as Deputy Minister of Local Development in the Second Cabinet of Andrej Babiš from 2014 to 2017 before being appointed permanently from December 2017 until 2021. In 2020, Dostálová returned to the council of the Hradec Králové region, of which she has been a member from 2016 until 2017. Dostálová is active in politics as a non-party member of the ANO movement.

Klára Dostálová
Official portrait, 2024
Member of the European Parliament
for Czech Republic
Assumed office
16 July 2024
Minister for Local Development
In office
13 December 2017 – 17 December 2021
Prime MinisterAndrej Babiš
Preceded byKarla Šlechtová
Succeeded byIvan Bartoš
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
21 October 2017 – 15 July 2024
Personal details
Born (1971-03-13) 13 March 1971 (age 53)
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Political partyANO 2011
Children2
Alma materPrague University of Economics and Business
OccupationEconomistPolitician

Early life

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Dostálová served as chairwoman of the Center for European Design between 2009 and 2014.[2] She faced suspicions of manipulating the repair of Hořice Square,[3] in which CEP prepared an application for a subsidiary, where her father Vilém Tvrdík subsequently won the tender.[4]

Dostálová was also involved in the non-profit company Revitalizace KUKS ops, which has been in liquidation since 6 January 2023, where she served as chairwoman of directors board.[5] Since 2014, Dostálová has been a member of the board of directors of the Mountain Service of the Czech Republic.[6]

Political career

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Deputy Minister for Local Development

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In February 2014, Dostálová replaced Věra Jourová as Deputy Minister for Local Development of the Czech Republic.[7] Dostálová remained at the ministry even after the arrival of new minister Karla Šlechtová.[8] The same year on 10 November, Dostálová also became first deputy minister of regional development.[9]

In the 2016 Czech regional elections, Dostálová was the leading candidate of the ANO movement in the Hradec Králové Region[10] from the position of a non-party member and was elected as a representative.[11] However, she resigned from the representative mandate in April 2017 due to the incompatibility of the functions of regional representative and deputy minister for regional development. The opinion on the incompatibility of the functions was promoted by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic.[citation needed] Dostálová disagreed with this opinion and did not want to leave the region in legal uncertainty.[12]

Cabinets of Andrej Babiš

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In the 2017 Czech parliamentary election, Dostálová was a non-party leader of the ANO movement in the Hradec Králové region,[13] receiving 5,237 preferential votes and thus became a member of parliament.[14] Between November and December 2017, she became a candidate for the post of Minister for Local Development of the Czech Republic in the emerging First Cabinet of Andrej Babiš.[15] On 13 December 2017, President Miloš Zeman appointed her to this position.[16]

In 2018, Babiš requested Dostálová to be Minister for Regional Development of the Czech Republic in his second government,[17] appointed by President Miloš Zeman on 27 June.[18] In the 2020 Czech regional elections, Dostálová was elected as a representative of the Hradec Králové region as a member of ANO 2011.[19]

Post-Babiš premiership

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In the 2021 parliamentary election, she was the leading candidate of in the Hradec Králové region from the position of a non-party member.[20] Dostálová received 4,446 preferential votes, thus becoming a member of parliament again.[21]

After a press conference of ANO at the end of October 2023, chairman Babiš identified Dostálová as a potential leader of the ANO movement's candidate for the 2024 European Parliament election.[22] She became one from the position of a non-party member in February 2024.[23] During the vote, Dostálová stated that she had applied for ANO because she was allegedly urged to do so by the voters during the campaign. According to the statutes, Dostálová was in the waiting period at the time, but formal acceptance was a matter of days.[24]

ANO won the European Parliament election, with Dostálova herself receiving the highest number of preferential votes of all candidates from all parties and movements, thus becoming an MEP.[25] She later resigned as member of Chamber of Deputies[26] and was replaced in the House of Representatives by Jaromír Dědeček [cs].[27]

Controversy

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Dostálova became one of the main people in the case of the CzechTourism agency in December 2018, for which the police also intervened in her ministry. She was supposed to make decisions about spending money for the benefit of selected people outside of the standard official procedure and suspected of subsidy fraud. Dostálova was arrested for abuse of authority of an official with 38 million CZK but denied any mistakes in this case.[28]

Dostálova received award in 2019 as Minister for Regional Development based on a memorandum of cooperation between the Ministry for Regional Development and the Chamber of Commerce.[29] In 2022, it was reported that Dostálova had been under investigation for more than three years on suspicion that she had bought her husband a new car with state money.[30]

Personal life

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Dostálová has two children from her marriage.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Ing. Klára Dostálová". Naši politici (in Czech). Archived from the original on 2016-09-20.
  2. ^ "Úplný výpis z obchodního rejstříku 2007". or.justice.cz (in Czech). 27 November 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  3. ^ "Hořické náměstí rekonstruovala firma propojená se zadavatelem tendru". ČT24 (in Czech). 29 May 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  4. ^ Škaloudová, Pavla (10 July 2012). "Firma odmítá nařčení, že šlo o nečistou zakázku". Deník (in Czech). Vltava Labe Media. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  5. ^ "Úplný výpis z rejstříku obecně prospěšných společností 2009". or.justice.cz (in Czech). 8 July 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  6. ^ "Úplný výpis z rejstříku obecně prospěšných společností 2004". or.justice.cz (in Czech). 21 November 2004. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  7. ^ Pruška, Jan (3 February 2014). "Ředitelka CEP Klára Dostálová jde na Ministerstvo pro místní rozvoj". Deník (in Czech). Vltave Labe Media. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  8. ^ Burketová, Radka (16 October 2014). "První náměstkyní ministryně pro místní rozvoj (MMR) zůstává Klára Dostálová". ČIA News (in Czech). Archived from the original on 12 August 2016.
  9. ^ "ING. Klárá Dostálová | Ministerstvo pro Místní Rozvoj od 10.11.2014" (PDF). mmr.gov.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  10. ^ "Krajskou kandidátku ANO povede Klára Dostálová". Deník (in Czech). Vltave Labe Media. 21 October 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  11. ^ "Volby do zastupitelstev krajů konané dne 7.10 – 8.10.2016". volbyhned.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  12. ^ Žlábková, Ludmila (24 April 2017). "Ministerská náměstkyně Dostálová se vzdala postu krajské zastupitelky". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Borgis.
  13. ^ "Lídrem ANO pro Hradecký kraj bude náměstkyně Dostálová". Echo24 (in Czech). 23 April 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  14. ^ "Volby do Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky konané ve dnech 20.10 – 21.10.2017". volbyhned.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  15. ^ Pavlisová, Michaela (1 December 2017). "Přehledně: Účastník SuperStar i výrobce müsli. Kdo bude v nové vládě?". Mladá fronta Dnes (in Czech). Mafra. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  16. ^ "Zeman jmenoval Babišovu vládu. Přeje si, aby získala důvěru do února". Mladá fronta Dnes (in Czech). Prague: Mafra. 13 December 2017.
  17. ^ Kopecký, Josef (22 June 2018). "Babiš zveřejnil návrh složení nové vlády. Budou v ní Malá i Nováková". Mladá fronta Dnes (in Czech). Mafra.
  18. ^ Kopecký, Josef (27 June 2018). "Prezident jmenoval vládu bez Pocheho. Půjde ji osobně podpořit před poslance". Mladá fronta Dnes (in Czech). Mafra. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  19. ^ "Volby do zastupitelstev krajů konané dne 2.10 – 3.10.2020". volbyhned.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  20. ^ "Lídrem kandidátní listiny v Královéhradeckém kraji bude Ing. Klára Dostálová". ANO 2011 (Press release) (in Czech). 25 May 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  21. ^ "Volby do Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky konané ve dnech 8.10 – 9.10.2021". volbyhned.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  22. ^ "Exministryně Dostálová by mohla vést ANO do eurovoleb. Hnutí chce obhájit šest mandátů". Czech Radio (in Czech). 30 October 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  23. ^ Trachtová, Zdeňka; Urbanová, Anna (12 February 2024). "Čelo kandidátky ANO do europarlamentu. Dostálová bude jednička, na páté místo se vklínila Nagyová". Czech Radio (in Czech). Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  24. ^ Brodníčková, Karolina (7 June 2024). "Online: Volili Pavel, Fiala i Babiš". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Borgis.
  25. ^ Hottková, Lucie; Dulínek, Jakub; Zadražilová, Jitka; Danda, Oldřich; Brodníčková, Karolina; Mach, Jiří; Vaculík, Radim; Svorník, Petr; Minárik, Pavol; Menšík, Jan (9 June 2024). "Online: Zájem Čechů o eurovolby byl rekordní". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Borgis.
  26. ^ "Zvolená europoslankyně Dostálová se vzdala funkce místopředsedkyně Sněmovny, šanci má Juchelka". Czech Radio (in Czech). 24 June 2024.
  27. ^ "108. schůze". Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (in Czech). 28 June 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  28. ^ Hynek, Jiří (5 December 2018). "Kauza CzechTourism: Ministryně Dostálová patří k hlavním podezřelým". ČT24 (in Czech). Czech Television. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  29. ^ "Ropákem roku je Dostálová. "Uspěli" i Babišovi motýle". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Borgis. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  30. ^ Blažek, Vojtěch (4 August 2022). "Policie: Dostálová financovala z peněz Sněmovny auto pro manžela k narozeninám". Seznam.cz (in Czech).