Petr Fiala

Petr Fiala (born 1 September 1964) is a Czech politician and political scientist who has been the prime minister of the Czech Republic since November 2021 and leader of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) since 2014.

In the 1980s, Fiala was involved in independent civic activism.

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 Kroměříž.

Between 1984 and 1989 he participated in the so-called underground university, hosting seminars in Brno focused on political philosophy.

He was involved in unofficial Christian activities, especially in the circle of secretly consecrated Bishop Stanislav Krátký.

Along with other Brno students, he founded the samizdat university magazine Revue 88, published in 1988–1989.

After November 1989, he continued his publishing and civic activism, working as an editor for magazines such as Proglas, Revue Politika and Kontexty.

In 1993, he founded the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Culture (CDK), a civic think-tank.

Fiala was criticized for his activities during the 2021 election campaign because the centre was accepting state subsidies.

Fiala has been active for a long time in institutions and bodies related to higher education and research in the Czech Republic and abroad.

In 1996, he became a docent at Charles University in Prague, and in 2002 was named as the first professor of political science in the Czech Republic.

In 2004, he became dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University, and in the same year was elected as rector of the university, defeating Jan Wechsler in the third round.

He served as Vice-Chair (2005–2009) and Chair (2009–2011) of the Czech Rectors' Conference, and at the international level he was a member of the Council of the European University Association (2009–2011).

In 2005 he was part of the commission in the competition of Czech and Moravian wines, TOP 77.

In 2007, he was elected by the Parliament to the council of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, where he served for five years.

He is a member of many scientific and academic councils of public and private universities and research institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Fiala was reelected in 2008 and remained in the position until 2011.

While Fiala was rector, Masaryk University increased its enrollment to around 45,000 students, became the most popular Czech university in terms of applications, and created a nationwide system for detecting academic plagiarism.

During this period, Masaryk University built a new €220 million campus for biomedicine, opened a research station in Antarctica, and established the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) using CZK 5.3 billion from the European Structural and Investment Funds.

The alliance outperformed initial opinion polls and finished first in the election, though with one less seat in the Chamber of Deputies than second-place ANO 2011.

Under Fiala's leadership, Spolu formed a coalition agreement with the Pirates and Mayors alliance, with a majority of 108 of 200 seats.

He was appointed Prime Minister by President Miloš Zeman on 28 November 2021 and Petr Fiala's Cabinet took power on 17 December 2021, 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.

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 during the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the opening of the Czech Republic's borders to the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per capita in the ensuing Ukrainian refugee crisis.

Fiala imposed sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and pushed to block Russian citizens from travelling to the European Union, as well as expressing strong support for Israel during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.

In 2022, the Czech Republic held the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Fiala's administration also faced rising inflation, concerns about the economy, and the ongoing global energy crisis.

During this period, the Czech economy significantly underperformed compared to EU average indicators, with the highest inflation rate in the EU, growing debt, and falling real wages.

Fiala's personal approval ratings as Prime Minister fell to near-record lows during this period.

Petr Fiala was born in Brno to a conservative Catholic family.

His father, who was partly of Jewish origin, was a Holocaust survivor.

CEITEC launched in 2011.

He 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.

He previously served as the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports from 2012 to 2013.

Prior to entering politics, he was the rector of Masaryk University.

In September 2011, Fiala served as chief aide for science to Prime Minister Petr Nečas, and was appointed as Minister of Education, Youth and Sports in Nečas' government on 2 May 2012, remaining in that post until Nečas resigned in 2013.

Fiala was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a non-partisan in the 2013 election.

He 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 Nečas.

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 Babiš to participate in his governing coalition.

In 2020, Fiala led the initiative for a centre-right electoral alliance with KDU-ČSL and TOP 09, known as Spolu.

He 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.