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Bohuslav Sobotka (; born 23 October 1971) is a Czech Republic politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from January 2014 to December 2017 and leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) from 2010 until his resignation in June 2017. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1996 to 2018. Sobotka also served as Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2006.
Elected as an MP in 1996, Sobotka was appointed Finance Minister in the Cabinet of Vladimír Špidla in 2002, and reappointed in the cabinets of Social Democratic Prime Ministers Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. He also served two stints as Deputy Prime Minister. After the 2006 legislative election, Sobotka became an opposition MP. In 2011, he was elected leader of the Social Democrats and thus Leader of the Opposition to the Cabinet of Petr Nečas.
Following his party's victory in the 2013 Czech legislative election, Sobotka was appointed prime minister on 17 January 2014 by President Miloš Zeman, to head a center-left coalition government consisting of ČSSD, ANO 2011 and KDU-ČSL. His government introduced a series of measures to tackle tax evasion, such as electronic registration of sales and a VAT control system, strengthened relations with China, enacted police reforms, repealed the Civil Service Act, and introduced a smoking ban. He also clashed frequently with President Miloš Zeman regarding the Russian intervention in Ukraine and resulting sanctions, domestic policy, and a government crisis in May 2017 which saw Sobotka resign, then withdraw his resignation. Sobotka was the first prime minister in 15 years and the third in the history of the Czech Republic to finish his full term.
On 14 June 2017, resigned as leader of ČSSD due to low opinion polling prior to the 2017 legislative election, but opted to stay on as prime minister. He was re-elected in the South Moravian Region, and in December 2017 was succeeded as Prime Minister by Andrej Babiš. On 31 March 2018, Sobotka retired from the Chamber of Deputies citing personal reasons.
He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1996 legislative election.
After the 2006 legislative election, Sobotka sat as an opposition MP, and was shadow finance minister in the Social Democrat shadow cabinet. His party won the legislative election in 2010 but failed to form a governing coalition and remained in opposition. Sobotka then served as interim leader of ČSSD after the resignation of Jiří Paroubek following the election.
Sobotka was elected leader of the party on 18 March 2011, defeating Michal Hašek, who became the first deputy leader. He thus became the Leader of the Opposition to the Cabinet of Petr Nečas.
As Prime Minister, Bohuslav Sobotka maintained a relatively positive stance on the Czech Republic's membership in the European Union. He stated that "membership of the Czech Republic in the European Union is a benefit", and that membership provides better security measures and economic stability. However, in early 2016, Sobotka said there would be a national debate on the country's place in the European Union in the case of British withdrawal.
On 26 May 2015, Sobotka's coalition government faced its first attempted overthrow, when the opposition called for a vote of no-confidence in the government because of Finance Minister Andrej Babiš. The attempt was not supported by the Chamber of Deputies.
In December 2016, Sobotka called for higher Corporate tax, stating: "The way taxation is set up right now it only obliges the big and rich players, who export their profits out of the Czech Republic. Annually, these sums amount to 200 to 300 billion Czech koruna."
Sobotka's government introduced a series of measures to tackle tax evasion (including electronic registration of sales and a VAT control system), strengthened relations with China, enacted police reforms, repealed the Civil Service Act, and introduced a smoking ban. He also frequently clashed with President Miloš Zeman regarding Russian intervention in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions, as well as domestic policy.
On 2 May 2017, Sobotka sparked a government crisis by announcing that he would resign because he could not bear responsibility for Finance Minister Andrej Babiš. Sobotka stated that Babiš had failed to clear up questions surrounding financial transactions connected to his business activity. Sobotka changed his mind on 5 May 2017, and instead decided to fire Babiš from his cabinet.
On 14 June 2017, Sobotka announced his resignation as leader of ČSSD due to low opinion polling, some of which showed his party with support of 10%. He said that "the party has to undergo deeper changes so that it will be able to address people better and mobilize its supporters and members" ahead of the 2017 legislative election. However, he opted to stay on as prime minister. After his resignation, Minister of Interior Milan Chovanec became acting leader of ČSSD, while Minister of Foreign Affairs Lubomír Zaorálek became the party's candidate for Prime Minister. However, Sobotka decided to compete in the election as the party leader in the South Moravian Region, where he was re-elected. In December 2017, he was succeeded as Prime Minister by Andrej Babiš. He was the first prime minister in 15 years and the third in the history of the Czech Republic to finish his full term.
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