Commercial presentation Updated: 04/08/2024 11:14 AM Issued: 04/08/2024, 09:29 AM
Illustrative photo – Jaroslav Bašta, SPD MP and presidential candidate in 2023, died at the age of 75 after a long illness. In an archive picture from October 12, 2021. CTK/Fluger René
Prague – At the age of 75, Jaroslav Bašta, SPD deputy and presidential candidate in 2023, died after a long illness. Barbora Šťastná, spokeswoman for the movement, told ČTK about it. According to media information from the end of May last year, Bašta was in a serious condition in the hospital, and since about mid-May he excused himself from the meetings of the House of Representatives for health reasons. MPs will honor Bašt’s memory with a minute of silence at the beginning of the meeting on Tuesday, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09) told ČTK. A place of worship will also be created in the lower chamber.
Bašta has been a member of the SPD since 2021, in 1996 he was elected a member of the ČSSD. For many years he worked as the Czech ambassador to Russia and Ukraine. He also worked for two years as a minister without portfolio in the government of Miloš Zeman. He was also a signatory of Charter 77.
The last MP who died during his mandate was ODS MP Jiří Ventruba in March 2021, who was hospitalized with a severe course of covid-19.
Basta will be replaced in the House of Representatives by Marcel Dlask, the administrative director of the Chvaletic power plant, who was one of his parliamentary assistants. “The Mandate and Immunity Committee will now start communication with the substitute Mr. Dlasek regarding his participation in the meeting and taking the oath,” said Pekarová Adamová. Before that, he will receive the certificate of election, the committee will discuss the creation of the mandate.
“A man of firm principles and one of the last active politicians of the pre-November dissent has passed away. A worthy, decent and noble person who did a lot for the SPD, the Czech Republic and its citizens. Honor to his memory,” said SPD spokeswoman Šťastná.
“I have always respected Jaroslav Bašta very much as a completely honest person. I am very sorry that he is no longer with us,” he said on his facebook former president Miloš Zeman. “He was an unforgettable element of our political scene, he was his own, he was original, he kept to his tone, he kept to his topics. I think he has now been very unfairly attacked for not coming to the Chamber of Deputies in recent days, I don’t think he deserved that.” ex-president Václav Klaus said at today’s press conference.
Bašta graduated from the grammar school in Žatec and studied historical archeology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. He was involved in the student Revolutionary Youth Movement, for which he was arrested and subsequently sent to prison. He then worked as a laborer and technician until the fall of communism. After the Velvet Revolution, he worked, among other things, in the leadership of the secret services, in the lustration commission and then got involved in political life.
In the past, Bašta was one of the leading politicians of the Social Democracy. He left the party in March 2019, in the same year he joined the Security, Responsibility, Solidarity (BOS) movement, for which he unsuccessfully ran for the European Parliament and which he became chairman of in autumn 2020. In 2021, he joined the SPD.
In last year’s presidential election, Bašta ran with the signatures of 20 members of the SPD club. He was the oldest among the eight candidates. He finished in fifth place in the first round, receiving 4.45 percent of the vote, and did not advance to the second round of the election.
Political scientist Josef Mlejnek told ČTK that Bašt’s change of opinion is explained by personal ambitions. According to him, the SPD was one of the few solutions for returning to politics. “He took advantage of this for a parliamentary mandate and a candidacy for the presidency. The question, of course, is whether he needed it,” said Mlejnek.
Bašta was married, he had an illegitimate son who died a few years ago.
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