Ivan Pilip
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Josef Tošovský
Ivan Pilip | |
|---|---|
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| 2nd Finance Minister of the Czech Republic | |
| In office 3 June 1997 – 22 July 1998 | |
| Prime Minister | Václav Klaus Josef Tošovský |
| Preceded by | Ivan Kočárník |
| Succeeded by | Ivo Svoboda |
| Minister of Education, Youth and Sport | |
| In office 1994–1997 | |
| Prime Minister | Václav Klaus |
| Preceded by | Petr Piťha |
| Succeeded by | Jiří Gruša |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 August 1963 |
| Party | KDS ODS US–DEU |
| Spouse | Lucie Pilipova[1] |
| Profession | Economist |
Ivan Pilip (born 4 August 1963 in Prague) is a Czech politician and economist[2] who was finance minister from June 1997 to July 1998, after having been the Minister of Education, Youth and Sport from 1994 to 1997.
Pilip was educated as an economist, before entering politics in the Christian Democratic Party (KDS) after the fall of Communism in the Czech Republic. Pilip served in government from 1992 to 1998, leading the KDS before it merged with the Civic Democratic Party. Pilip was among the deputies who split from the Civic Democrats to form the Freedom Union and in 1998 he went into opposition.
Pilip was detained in Cuba in early 2001 for almost a month after meeting opponents of the Cuban government, before being released after international pressure on Cuba. He lost his seat in the Chamber of Deputies in 2002, but would serve as interim leader of Freedom Union for a period afterwards, before serving as a vice-president at the European Investment Bank from 2004 to 2007.
Ivan Pilip gained a degree in international business and trade at the University of Economics in Prague and did post-graduate studies at the Complutense University of Madrid.[2] Before the Velvet Revolution at the end of 1989, Pilip was not involved in politics, having jobs at the university in Prague and at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.[3] However following the end of Communism in 1989 Pilip became manager of a medical equipment factory and joined the Christian Democratic Party after it was founded in 1990.[3]
Pilip is married to Lucie Pilipova, who was a foreign ministry spokesperson, until she left the role when her husband became chairman of the KDS to avoid any conflict of interest.[3]
Political career
The KDS fought the 1992 Czech election in alliance with the Civic Democrats and became a junior partner in a coalition led by the Civic Democrats.[4] In August 1992 Pilip was appointed deputy education minister in the coalition government, before becoming Education Minister in 1994, replacing Petr Piťha who had brought him into the government.[3] Pilip was elected chairman of the KDS in December 1993, succeeding Vaclav Benda, after winning an election for the party leadership.[3]
However, in 1995 the KDS agreed to merge with the Civic Democrats, with 5 of the 10 KDS deputies, including Pilip, joining the Civic Democrats.[4] Pilip stayed as Education Minister after the merger, but became seen as a leading figure within the Civic Democrats, before becoming finance minister in the summer of 1997.[5]
In the second half of 1997 pressure built on the prime minister Václav Klaus, over a donation to the Civic Democrats from a businessman who had recently gained a significant stake in a company privatised by the government.[6] After the Foreign Minister, Josef Zieleniec, resigned in October 1997, Ivan Pilip called on Klaus to resign on 28 November and around the same time the 2 junior parties in the coalition quit the government.[6] Klaus resigned as Prime Minister on 30 November and Pilip said he would challenge Klaus for the leadership of the Civic Democratic Party if no one else did.[7] On 7 December a bomb exploded outside Pilip's house, causing no injuries, but alarming many.[7] Klaus was re-elected as leader of the Civic Democrats, but Pilip continued on as Finance Minister, along with 3 other rebel Civic Democrats, in a caretaker government led by the Governor of the Czech National Bank, Josef Tošovský.[8]
The rebel members of the Civic Democrats, including Pilip and 30 of the 69 deputies from the Civic Democratic Party, founded a new political party, the Freedom Union, under the leadership of the former interior minister Jan Ruml.[9][10] However at the 1998 election Freedom Union only won 19 seats,[11] compared to 63 for the Civic Democrats,[12] with Ivan Pilip being one of the elected deputies. Following the election Freedom Union went into opposition, after the Czech Social Democratic Party formed a minority government, which was tolerated by the Civic Democrats.[13]
