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Ondřej Kolář (politician)

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Ondřej Kolář
Kolář in 2019
Member of the European Parliament
for the Czech Republic
Incumbent
Assumed office
16 July 2024
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
9 October 2021 – 14 June 2024
Mayor of Prague 6
In office
21 November 2014 – 24 October 2022
Preceded byMarie Kousalíková
Succeeded byJakub Stárek
Personal details
Born (1984-03-13) 13 March 1984 (age 40)
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Political partyTOP 09 (2010–present)
Alma materFaculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
University of West Bohemia
American University Washington College of Law
Trinity College Dublin

Ondřej Kolář (born 13 March 1984) is a Czech politician and lawyer who has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic since 2021. He was mayor of the Prague 6 district from 2014 until 2022.[1] According to the Phoenix Research survey, Kolář was the second-most popular mayor of Prague in 2017.[2]

Early life

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Kolář was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He is the son of Czech diplomat Petr Kolář. He has lived in Norway, Sweden, and the Republic of Ireland. After returning to the Czech Republic, Kolář studied media studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University and law at the University of West Bohemia. He also completed the international legal theories Program at American University Washington College of Law and one year of German studies at Trinity College Dublin.[3] In 2011, Kolář started working as secretary to the chairman of TOP 09 and then-foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg.[4]

Political career

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2010s

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In April 2017, Prague City Hall paid 50,000 CZK for Kolář's interview in the men's magazine Playboy, which did not escape the attention of the media.[5]

On 13 May 2017, Kolář attended the unveiling of the foundation stone of the future monument to Maria Theresa of Habsburg in Hradčany, stating: "Marie Theresa is the only woman who ever sat on the Czech throne, and therefore she deserves such a monument."[6] The commission for the statue of Maria Theresa by Prague 6 cost almost 4,000,000 CZK.[7]

On 18 April 2018, Kolář filed a criminal complaint against himself, stating: "As soon as we approved in the council in 2016, the termination of the disadvantageous contract by which Prague 6 releases Poliklinika Pod Marjánkou to a private individual, we were criticised that the termination was poorly-executed that we paid severance pay without authorization."[8]

Kolář arose the initiative to add an information board to the monument to Soviet Marshal Konev in Prague 6. The ambassadors of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan objected to the plaque.[9] According to Embassy of Russia, Prague, Konev did not take part in the invasion in 1968 and, due to his age, had already left commanding positions in the armed forces of the USSR.[10][11]

In August 2019, Kolář declared that he sympathized with the vandals who painted and poured red paint on the monument to Marshal Konev in Prague, and would not let the statue be cleaned.[12]

2020s

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In the 2021 Czech parliamentary election, Kolář ran as a member of TOP 09 in the fourth place candidate of the Spolu coalition in Prague. Thanks to 27,259 preferential votes, he finally finished fifth and became a member of parliament.[13]

In the 2022 Czech municipal elections, Kolář ran for the council of Prague 6 from the third place of the TOP 09 candidate. However, he finished first and thus defended the mandate of the district representative, but no longer defended the position of mayor.[14] Kolář served as an opposition representative in the Prague 6 council, but resigned from the mandate in November 2023.[15]

In the 2024 European Parliament election, Kolář ran as a member of TOP 09 on the sixth place candidate of Spolu coalition with Civic Democratic Party and KDU-ČSL.[16] He received 31,623 preferential votes and became an MEP.[17] On 14 June, Kolář resigned as a member of the Chamber of Deputies and was replaced by his party colleague Martin Dlouhý [cs].[18]

Political views

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Kolář criticised International Criminal Court in The Hague for filling to issue an arrest warrant for Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes during the Israel–Hamas war.[19]

Controversy

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Although Kolář claimed before the elections that the municipal council of Prague 6 uses "mainly our in-house lawyers and we only need help from the outside in exceptional cases", the law office of Petr Kubíček, Kolář's classmate from the Faculty of Law in Plzeň, prepared a total of 12 legal opinions that costed 844,035 CZK in August 2019.[20] According to the lawyers, the legal analyses they were by several of Kolář's former classmates were overpriced.[21] Aktuálně.cz found out in March 2020 that the law office of Petr Kubíček from Prague 6 received almost 340,000 CZK for two legal opinions, which are plagiarised.[22] Kubíč's analysis was created almost two months before the official order from the town hall, while Kolář refused to spread this fund.[23]

Kolář tried to legally force the opposition representative Jiří Hoskovec to delete a Facebook comment, stating: "Ondřej Kolář took lucrative city plots to Cyprus through the company SNEO, from which he removed all his opponents." Chairman of the representative club Pirates in Prague 6 Ondřej Chrást demanded Kolář's resignation in December 2019 because Kolář allegedly behaves "like a Russian governor" and intimidates the opposition.[24]

In March 2024, in an interview with CNN Prima News, Kolář called former Minister of Foreign Affairs Lubomír Zaorálek "vulgar".[25] Zaorálek later demanded an apology from him.[26]

References

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  1. ^ "Mgr. Ondřej Kolář". Naši Politici (in Czech). 12 February 2017. Archived from the original on 24 July 2018.
  2. ^ Vojíř, Aleš (22 May 2019). "Nejpopulárnější starostové jsou na sedmičce a šestce. Ti z okraje města propadli". Deník (in Czech). Prague: Vltava Labe Media. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Praha 6: Starostou zvolen Ondřej Kolář (TOP 09)". Parlamentní Listy (in Czech). 21 November 2014.
  4. ^ Prokeš, Jan (7 January 2019). "Starosta Prahy 6 Kolář: Komunální politika je pavlač, kde na vás pořád někdo řve". Deník (in Czech). Prague: Vltava Labe Media.
  5. ^ "Praha 6 zaplatila starostovi rozhovor v Playboyi, radnici to stálo skoro 50 tisíc". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Prague: Borgis. 7 April 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Marii Terezii odhalili u Prašného mostu, přijela také na Hrad". ČT24 (in Czech). Prague: Czech Television. 13 May 2017.
  7. ^ Prokeš, Jan (23 February 2019). "Petice odmítá pomník Marie Terezie nedaleko Hradu. Hotov by měl být už na podzim". Deník (in Czech). Prague: Vltava Labe Media.
  8. ^ "Starosta Prahy 6 podal trestní oznámení sám na sebe". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Prague: Borgis. 18 April 2018.
  9. ^ Mošpanová, Eva (4 January 2018). "Pražskou sochu maršála Koněva řeší velvyslanci i ruské ministerstvo. Česká strana neskrývá překvapení". Czech Radio (in Czech).
  10. ^ "Koněv se na okupaci Československa nepodílel, tvrdí Rusko". Týden (in Czech). Prague: Empresa Media. 30 May 2018.
  11. ^ "Tabulce u Koněvovy sochy ministerstvo nezabrání. Rozhodnutí přísluší Praze 6, řekl Stropnický". ČT24 (in Czech). Prague: Czech Television. 11 January 2018. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  12. ^ "Zamezte provokacím! Moskva si stěžuje na "zhanobení" pomníku Koněva". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Prague: Borgis. 23 August 2019.
  13. ^ "Volby do Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky konané ve dnech 2021 | Všechny kraje – Strana Spolu". volby.cz (in Czech). Czech Statistical Office. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  14. ^ "Volby do zastupitelstev obcí 2022 | Obec Praha 6 | Kandidátní listina TOP 09" (in Czech). Czech Statistical Office. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  15. ^ "Po rezignaci Ondřeje Koláře se zastupitelského mandátu ujme Tomáš Mandlík". Prague 6 (in Czech). 9 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  16. ^ "Kandidátní listina pro volby do Evropského parlamentu". spolu21.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 9 April 2024.
  17. ^ Hottková, Lucie; Dulínek, Jakub; Zadražilová, Jitka; Danda, Oldřich; Brodníčková, Karolina; Mach, Jiří; Vaculík, Radim; Svorník, Petr; Minárik, Pavol; Menšík, Jan (9 June 2024). "Online: Zájem Čechů o eurovolby byl rekordní". Novinky.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  18. ^ "Zvolená europoslankyně Dostálová se vzdala funkce místopředsedkyně Sněmovny, šanci má Juchelka". Czech Radio (in Czech). 24 June 2024.
  19. ^ Bezděková, Iva (3 June 2024). "Žádost Haagu o zatykač na Netanjahua rozděluje koalici, Piráti odmítají kritiku, která zní z ODS a TOP 09". Deník N (in Czech). N Media.
  20. ^ Mihalik, Marcel (26 August 2019). "Praha 6 přihrává kšefty spolužákům starosty Koláře z "plzeňských práv"". Náš Region (in Czech). Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  21. ^ Mihalik, Marcel (30 September 2019). "Právníci: Analýzy Kolářových spolužáků jsou předražené". Náš Region (in Czech). Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  22. ^ Horák, Jan; Valášek, Lukáš (3 March 2020). "Dva právní posudky za 340 tisíc. Psal je starostův spolužák, radnici dodal plagiáty". Aktuálně.cz (in Czech).
  23. ^ Horák, Jan; Valášek, Lukáš (5 March 2020). "Zakázka na právní služby se domluvila předem, advokát radnici peníze za plagiát vrátí". Aktuálně.cz (in Czech).
  24. ^ "Piráti v Praze 6 chtěli jednat o odvolání starosty Ondřeje Koláře z TOP 09". Parlamentní Listy (in Czech). 19 December 2019.
  25. ^ Vaníčková, Kateřina (12 April 2024). "Kolář se pustil do Zaorálka kvůli útoku na svého otce. Nešetřil vulgarismy". Mladá fronta Dnes (in Czech). Mafra. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  26. ^ Kabourková, Monika (17 March 2024). "Okamžitě skonči a omluv se, vyzval Zaorálek Koláře. Kvůli vulgaritám zvažuje další kroky". CNN Prima News (in Czech).
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