Jiří Čunek, Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetJiří Čunek
Czech minister of regional development of the CR, vice prime minister of the Czech Republic, senator of Czech Parliament and mayor
Date of Birth: 22-Feb-1959
Place of Birth: Zlín, Zlín Region, Czech Republic
Profession: politician
Nationality: Czech Republic
Zodiac Sign: Pisces 
About Jiří Čunek
- Jirí Cunek (born February 22, 1959) is a Czech politician who was the Leader of the Christian and Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party from December 2006 to May 2009.
- Cunek was also Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Regional Development in Mirek Topolánek's Second Cabinet until January 23, 2009.
- Since 2006, Cunek has been Senator from Vsetín and since November 2, 2016 he has been the Governor of Zlín Region. Cunek was born in Gottwaldov (now Zlín), and after studying at a technical college, he worked as a car technician for a construction company in Zlín and as a safety technician in Zbrojovka Vsetín from 1982 to 1998.
- In 1990, Cunek became a member of KDU-CSL.
- He was elected to the municipal council of Vsetín in 1994 and became mayor of the town in 1998.
- Since 2000, Cunek has been a member of the council of the Zlín Region.
- According to media reports, he was a very successful and popular mayor.
- In 2006 Cunek, was elected to the Senate of the Czech Republic by a large margin of 71.3%.
- He was re-elected in 2012 and 2018, when he obtained majority in the first round.Cunek became famous across the country when the media published a report on how he dealt with the Romani slum in Vsetín.
- The Romani lived in the center of the city in a dilapidated building and as they did not pay the rent, Cunek forced them to move to the outskirts of Vsetín.
- Three families were moved into villages in the distant Jeseník District, where they bought houses, and the rest of families were moved into newly built flats near Vsetín.
- The media and several activists attempted to portray Cunek as a racist and supporter of the ghettoization of the Romani, and several leaders of the KDU-CSL suggested Cunek to step down his positions.Cunek used the newly acquired media publicity to announce his bid for the leader of KDU-CSL party (the previous leader, Miroslav Kalousek, stepped down a few months earlier because of the outrage of party members over his proposal to form a minority coalition government with the Social Democrats with the parliamentary support of the hardline Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia).
- Based predominantly on his tough approach to the Roma, Cunek obtained the position of KDU-CSL leader on December 9, 2006 with a wide margin—182 votes out of 312. Cunek has been named a suspect in corruption case, but not formally charged.
- Police suspected Cunek of having taken a bribe of half a million CZK from the H&B Real company for the sale of the majority share of the Vsetinské byty housing company in February 2002 when he was mayor of Vsetín.
- The investigation has been suspended after the prosecutor who originally launched was dismissed for bias (the procedure being employed for the first time since the law allowing it was passed).
- The matter gained extreme publicity and Cunek was subjected to a personal finance audit by an American firm Kroll; the audit largely cleared Cunek of this particular bribe suspicion. In late October 2007, Jirí Cunek was also accused by Czech Television of collecting government social assistance payments in 1998, while at the same time depositing close to 3.5 million Kc (approximately US$175,000) into various bank accounts.
- Consequently, he resigned from government.He was reappointed as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Regional Development on April 2, 2008.
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