Although they have not been on the same page politically lately, Vladimir Špidla on your own a former party member from the ČSSD for Lightning he recalled.
“But she connected us not just politics and party affiliation. For a long time it was also interest in history and archaeology. It should be remembered that Bašta he was originally an archaeologist by profession,” recalled Špidla, who for years listed heritage care as one of his interests.
Security and history connected them
“I enjoyed working with him, he had great knowledge and a similar education – that connected us. But I also have to remind you that he was always interested in security matters (after the Velvet Revolution, Jaroslav Bašta worked in the leadership of the secret services and in the lustration commission, editor’s note), and that was another intersection of what connected us. I don’t want it to sound like a cliché, but it also needs to be said he was a really honest social democrat back then“, Špidla said.
However, as he added, later their paths of opinion completely diverged. “I have to say that I was a little surprised that he joined the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement,” admitted the ex-prime minister and former European commissioner.
Špidla’s candidacy for president came as a surprise
Jaroslav Bašta’s political career continued, however. He was one of the candidates in the last direct presidential election.
“It was for me surprisingly, I have to admit, mainly that for whom he became the candidate. So I wouldn’t be happy if he succeeded—not because I didn’t want him to, but because represented the direction I would say, extreme nationalist right. He is really almost the furthest from what I think politically, so rI wouldn’t be for such a president. However, in my opinion, he had no significant chance to succeed. I can imagine that was just part of some wider election calculation“, Špidla told Blesk.cz.
As he added, he already noticed at the time of his candidacy, as he knew Jaroslav Bašta personally very closely, that he was not completely healthy. “I tried even later, when he was officially sick, to find out what was wrong with him, but I have not received any information” he summed up.
Chronically ill
According to media information from the end of last May, he was Jaroslav Bašta in hospital in serious conditionsince around mid-May he excused himself from the meetings of the House for health reasons. He was a member of the SPD since 2021, in 1996 he was elected deputy for the ČSSD.
Many years served as the Czech ambassador to Russia and Ukraine. He was too minister without portfolio in Miloš Zeman’s government.
Trace in the intelligence services
He also left a significant mark in the intelligence services, in 1990 he became Head of Department and Deputy Director of the Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (FMV) for the Protection of the Constitution and Democracy. He was briefly in 1991 Deputy Director of the Federal Security Information Service (FBIS). He had been in charge for a year from December 1991 when he left the service an independent commission at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is she was engaged in lustrations. In 1996, he was elected to the House of Representatives, where, among other things he headed the Security Information Service (BIS) Review Commission and was a member of the Security Committee.
Yet the last MP to die during his term, in March 2021, there was ODS MP Jiří Ventruba, who was hospitalized with a severe course of covid-19. He should have Jaroslav Bašta in the House of Representatives to replace the administrative director of the Chvaletic power plant, Marcel Dlask.
Vladimir Špidla was from July 2002 to June 2004 Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. In the years 2001 to 2004, he was the chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party. From 2004 to February 2010 he was the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.