Home » News » Jan Vrba, a former Minister of Industry from the Pithart government, has died. He was 83 years old, before his death he was treated with a covid | People

Jan Vrba, a former Minister of Industry from the Pithart government, has died. He was 83 years old, before his death he was treated with a covid | People

Prague Former Minister of Industry Jan Vrba died at the age of 83 on Wednesday. From 1990 to 1992 he was a member of the first post-November Czech government. He then went into the private sector and worked as an economic expert and consultant until the last days of his life.


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To the last request of LN for an interview on the topic of the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the economy with the subtitle What awaits us and what Jan Vrba responded to immediately in mid-October: “Does it suit you on Monday? Yes? So come with me, I’m sitting on the third floor, there is no elevator and you have to cross the yard first. But if you call me like that, I’ll come to meet you. “

But two days later, in mid-October, just a few hours before the scheduled meeting, Jan Vrba sent a brief message: “I have symptoms of covid, I’m going for tests tomorrow.” Yesterday, Vrb’s family announced that he had died on Wednesday, November 4.

Engineer, handyman, director

The beginnings of the later Minister of Industry were more than modest. After graduating from the University of Textiles and Mechanical Engineering in Liberec in the 1960s, he joined the local Textilana. At that time, none of the company’s employees would have tipped him for an engineering degree – his suit was overalls. Because of his father, who was imprisoned for eight years by the communist regime for his political views, there was no place for him other than a maintenance man in a boiler room. Nevertheless, in 1978 he became the CEO of the Liberec company and was loyal to him for 20 years.

The end of his engagement in Textilana in the mid-1980s was marked by his acquaintance with the Slušovice collective farm, the then protectionist pride of the Czechoslovak directive-controlled economy. “I wrote a multi-page plan for how I would like to apply a similar experiment in Textilana. To abuse it, I abused the Liberec exhibition markets. Various people from ministries and party circles, which I accompanied to the Textilana stand, went there. And I always told them that I would like to do something similar to Slušovice, “Vrba recalled in an interview with LN last November. No one called him for a long time. Once: “My wife and I were on vacation in Poland. And when I picked up my mailbox when I returned, I found a letter there. It meant that I had been Deputy Minister for a week. That’s how I went there. ”That was in 1984.

He was found in the chair of the Deputy Minister responsible for part of the industry in November 1989. He immediately found himself in search of people who were looking for experts for the newly emerging governments. In June 1990, he became Minister of Industry in the government of Petr Pithart and was directly involved in the sale of the Mladá Boleslav carmaker to the German company Volkswagen.

Modesty, discipline, sport

After leaving the government and politics (he was active in the Civic Forum and the Civic Movement in the 1990s), he returned to what he had always lived for – the textile industry. He was behind the successful restructuring of the felt cap and wool fabric manufacturer Fezko and its connection with the producer of hats and other headgear Tonak. In the last at least twenty years, he has been involved in the company as a shareholder and as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Jan Vrba was not just an economist, manager, minister, politician and modest professional. He was also an enthusiastic and disciplined athlete. At the age of 66, he ran a marathon and cycled 2,000 kilometers a year every year. The last interview he gave to the press was published in LN in April this year; along with his interview last year, you can find it on the web Lidovky.cz.

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