Marek Benda

Benda was born in 1968, the son of Roman Catholic intellectual and anti-communist dissident Václav Benda.^[2] He studied at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University from 1988 to 1990, but left the school during the Velvet Revolution as he was involved in politics.^{[citation needed]} He later studied at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, but did not complete his studies as he lacked the required skills in foreign languages.^[3]

Benda later studied law at the University of West Bohemia from 2003 to 2008. He initially passed a post-masters examination and earned a Doctor degree, but it was later revealed that his post-masters thesis was a work of plagiarism, and he did not receive the degree.^[4][5]

Benda became a member of parliament in 1990. He was a co-founder of the Christian Democratic Party (KDS), which later merged with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Benda then became a member of ODS,^[6][7] and has represented the party in the Chamber of Deputies since then, except for a two-year break from 2002 to 2004, making him the longest serving member of the Chamber of Deputies.^[8] Since 2021 he has been the leader of the ODS parliamentary group.