Tomáš Zdechovský

Tomáš Zdechovský MEP
Member of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2014
Constituency	Czech Republic
Personal details
Born	(1979-11-02) 2 November 1979
Nationality	Czech
Political party	National: Christian and Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's Party European: EPP
Spouse(s)	Ivana Zdechovská
Children	Tobiáš, Anežka and Tomáš
Alma mater	Masaryk University, University of South Moravia
Profession	Crisis Manager, Media Analyst, Author
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	http://zdechovsky.eu

Tomáš Zdechovský (born 2 November 1979)^[1] is Czech politician, crisis manager, media analyst, poet and author. In May 2014 he was elected member of the European Parliament with KDU-ČSL, part of European Peoples Party.

Background

Tomáš Zdechovský has earned three master´s degrees. Two of them at University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice (Pastoral Assistant and Educator of Free Time)and third of them at Masaryk University (Media studies).^[2] He is also holder of bachelor´s degree in political communication which he earned at Salesian Pontifical University.^[3] Since 2006, he regularly lectures at universities Crisis communication, Crisis management and crisis communication in politics.

2004 he founded a PR and communication company Commservis.com, which he was a Chief Executive until he was elected a member of European Parliament. He also managed its subsidiary company WIFI Czech republic.

He is a member of the KDU-ČSL and in 2007-2008 served as its regional manager in Pardubice region. First time he ran for MEP in 2009 on the 14th rank of party list, however he was not elected.^[4] Great response had his nomination speech at the Congress of KDU-ČSL, held in June 2013 in Olomouc, which was inflected by using multiple numbers three. In European Parliament Elections 2014 he ran for the KDU-ČSL for the second time. He was placed on the 3rd rank of the party list and has been elected a Member of the European Parliament.^[5]

Member of the European Parliament

Since 2014 he has been involved in the Michalák Case,^[6][7] decries the practice of the Norwegian Barnevernet and Norwegian child protection policy as a whole, and demands its change.^[8]

Several times Tomáš Zdechovský has also commented on the European migrant crisis and in July 2015, he visited a couple of refugee camps in Sicily. He said, most of the people in local refugee camps were actually economic migrants.^[9][10] Furthermore, his criticism is aimed at Greece, which according to his words has neglected the border controls and registration of newcomers.^[11][12][13]

Poet and author

He is co-founder of the group of poets called Friends of the silent poetic touch (Přátelé tichého dotyku) and the author of its manifesto protesting against the cultural decline of Czech society. Literary critics count him among the representatives of the contemporary Catholic modern poetry. Zdechovský itself is, however, considers himself representant of "dotekysmus" (from Czech dotek = touch), which emphasises as playfulness, simplicity of the verses that have human touch and emotionalism which is built on the emotional experience of verses. He has published three collections of poems: Ze zahrady mé milé (From the Garden of my Beloved One), which was translated into Hebrew,^[14] some poems have also been translated into English, German, Italian, French, Russian and Ukrainian), Odpusť mým rtům (Forgive My Lips) and Intimní doteky (Intimate Touches).^[15]

In 2013, he published his first novel Nekonečné ticho (Infinite Silence), which is about the relationship between a young man with an older woman. The book was illustrated by painter and graphic artist Klára Klose.^[16]

Other Activities

Tomáš Zdechovský was in late 2008 one of the founders of initiative called Save the Baby Jesus (in Czech Zachraňte Ježíška) which aims to defend Czech Christmas traditions against Santa Claus.^[17][18] In the same way, he together with Roman Celý, Christian democratic deputy of Czech parliament, criticised alleged replacement by local schools of the "peaceful" Czech All Souls Day (dušičky) with that "crazy" American holiday, Halloween.^[19]

In 2012, he was the main organizer of the proposal for the establishment of a bishopry for the region Vysočina. The signature initiative was supported by former head of KDU-ČSL Jan Kasal, regional chairman TOP 09 Jiři Blazek and Regional Councillor Tomáš Škaryd (ČSSD). However the Roman Catholic parish in Jihlava, distanced itself from it and dubbed these initiative rather ridiculous.^[20]

References

External links

• Tomáš Zdechovský website