Lubomír Zaorálek
Minister of Culture
In office
28 August 2019 – 17 December 2021
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš
Preceded by Antonín Staněk
Succeeded by Martin Baxa
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
29 January 2014 – 13 December 2017
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka
Preceded by Jan Kohout
Succeeded by Martin Stropnický
President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
11 July 2002 – 14 August 2006
Preceded by Václav Klaus
Succeeded by Miloslav Vlček
President of the Czech Republic
Acting
In office
3 February 2003 – 7 March 2003
Serving with Vladimír Špidla
Preceded by Václav Havel
Succeeded by Václav Klaus
1st Deputy President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
24 June 2010 – 28 August 2013
Preceded by Miroslava Němcová
Succeeded by Jaroslava Pokorná Jermanová
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
1 June 1996 – 21 October 2021
Personal details
Born (1956-09-06) 6 September 1956 (age 69)
Ostrava, Czechoslovakia
(now Czech Republic)
Party Socialist Party (1986–1989)
Civic Forum (1990–1991)
Civic Movement (1991–1994)
Social Democratic Party (1994–present)
Other political
affiliations		 National Front (1986–1989)
Stačilo! (2025)
Alma mater Masaryk University

Lubomír Zaorálek (born 6 September 1956) is a Czech politician, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka from 2014 to 2017, and Minister of Culture under Prime Minister Andrej Babiš from 2019 to 2021. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1996 to 2021, and was the election leader for the Social Democratic Party in the 2017 election, when their vote share dropped to 7%.

Early life

He was born on 6 September 1956 in Ostrava,[1] and graduated from Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (today Masaryk University) in Brno in 1982.[2] He worked as a dramaturge at Czechoslovak Television in Ostrava.[3]

Political career

During the Velvet Revolution in November 1989 he participated in Civic Forum.

Zaorálek was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1996 as a member of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), becoming the party's vice chairman in 2009. From 2002 to 2006, he was the President of the Chamber of Deputies.

He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2017 in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka,[4] and then as Minister of Culture in the Cabiner of Prime Minister Andrej Babis from 2019 to 2021. He lost his seat in the Chamber of Deputies when ČSSD failed to qualify to enter parliament at the 2021 general election.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lubomír Zaorálek.

See also

  • List of foreign ministers in 2017
  • List of current foreign ministers

References

  1. ^ "Životopis - PHDR. Lubomír ZAORÁLEK". Archived from the original on 2014-06-20. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
  2. ^ "CV of Lubomir Zaoralek" (in Czech). Pronet Media Ostrava. 2010. Archived from the original on 20 June 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  3. ^ "Filmova databaze FDB" (in Czech). Filmová databáze s.r.o. (FDb.cz). Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  4. ^ "Lubomír Zaorálek". Government of the Czech Republic. January 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2015.