Miroslav Beneš (born 5 April 1956) is a Czech politician and former member of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). He also served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic and as the deputy chairman of the ODS.

Miroslav Beneš
Vice Chairman of the Civic Democratic Party
In office
4 November 2001 – 15 December 2002
In office
14 December 1997 – 5 December 1999
Member of the European Parliament
In office
1 May 2004 – 19 July 2004
Representative of the town of Klatovy
In office
2 November 2002 – 10 February 2004
Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic
In office
20 June 1998 – 15 June 2006
Representative of the City of České Budějovice
In office
19 November 1994 – 14 November 2002
Mayor of the city of České Budějovice
In office
1994–1998
Personal details
Born (1956-04-05) 5 April 1956 (age 68)
Strakonice, Czechoslovakia
Political partyČSSD
Alma materCzech Technical University in Prague

Biography

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Beneš was born on 5 April 1956 in Strakonice. After attending Strakonice Gymnasium from 1971 to 1975, Beneš graduated from the Faculty of Nuclear and Physical Engineering in Prague in 1980. He worked in Energoprojekt Prague as a laborer in a starch factory and as a miner in a uranium mine. From 1986, he worked at the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant. In 1992, he established a consulting firm. He serves as the secretary to the vice president of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ).

Political career

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From 1994 to 1998, Beneš was the mayor of České Budějovice. He was elected to the city council in the municipal elections of 1994, 1998, and 2002, representing the ODS.[1]

He entered national politics at the end of 1997 in connection with the ODS. He was elected deputy chairman of the ODS at the 8th ODS congress in December 1997. He held this position until December 1999 when Petr Nečas took over at the 10th ODS congress. Beneš returned to the position of deputy chairman at the 12th ODS congress in November 2001, staying in the role until the 13th ODS congress in December 2002.[2] In 2003, he led successful negotiations as the chief negotiator for the ODS leading to the election of Václav Klaus as the President of the Czech Republic.[3]

In the 1998 elections, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the ODS (electoral district: South Bohemian Region).[4] He successfully defended his mandate in the 2002 elections and remained in the Chamber until the 2006 elections. From 1998 to 2002, he chaired the parliamentary committee for public administration, regional development, and the environment. He was also a member of the organizational committee and, from 2001 to 2002, a member of the election committee. In the period from 2002 to 2004, he served as the chairman of the election committee and a member of the constitutional committee, and from 2004 to 2006, he was a member of the committee for European affairs.[5][6]

In 2004, before the European Parliament elections, Beneš served as a co-opted Member of the European Parliament until regularly elected representatives from the Czech Republic took office. He did not run in the 2004 EP elections.[7]

In the 2008 Senate elections, he ran for the ODS in the Senate electoral district No. 12 Strakonice. However, with a 22% result, he did not advance to the second round. His opponents in the second round were the incumbent senator Josef Kalbáč of the KDU-ČSL and the victorious candidate of the Social Democrats, Miroslav Krejča.[8] After leaving the Chamber of Deputies, he worked as the chief advisor to Minister of Industry and Trade Martin Říman.

Later, he left the ODS, and in the 2014 municipal elections, he run for the city council of České Budějovice for the newly formed party Tories, founded by another former ODS member, Oldřich Vojíř, in Most.[9][10] He ran as an independent, led the candidate list but was not successful.[11]

Personal life

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Beneš is married and has two sons, Matouš (b. 1979) and Tomáš (b. 1983).

References

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  1. ^ "České Budějovice". komunalnipolitika.cz. 2016-03-12. Archived from the original on 2016-03-12. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  2. ^ Politické strany. 2: Období 1938 - 2004. Brno: Doplněk. 2005. ISBN 978-80-7239-179-0.
  3. ^ Bartoš, Adam B. (2008-10-12). "Billboardy lidovce Kalbáče zaplavily Strakonicko, sok z ODS není vidět". iDNES.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  4. ^ "olby do Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky konané ve dnech 19. - 20.6.1998". volby.cz. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  5. ^ "Parlament České republiky, Poslanecká sněmovna 1998 – 2002". psp.cz. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  6. ^ "Parlament České republiky, Poslanecká sněmovna 2002 – 2006". psp.cz. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  7. ^ "Volby do Evropského parlamentu konané na území České republiky ve dnech 11.06. – 12.06.2004". volby.cz. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  8. ^ "Volby do Senátu Parlamentu ČR konané dne 17.10. – 18.10.2008". volby.cz. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  9. ^ Laiblová, Lada; Horák, Jan (2014-06-26). "Exposlanec ODS založil stranu, parazituje na britských konzervativcích". iDNES.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  10. ^ "Utekli z ODS, teď se porvou o hlasy - Novinky". novinky.cz (in Czech). 2014-08-23. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  11. ^ "Volby do zastupitelstev obcí". volby.cz. Retrieved 2024-01-16.