The main opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD) have regained a majority in Senate with the election of Jiří Dienstbier Jr. to the seat representing Kladno left vacant after the death in January of his father, the country’s first post-communist foreign minister.
With Dienstbier’s victory, the ČSSD now have 41 seats in the 81-seat upper house of Parliament. Although the Senate has the power to veto legislation, the center-right coalition — comprising the ODS, and two junior parties, TOP 09 and Public Affairs (VV) — has a comfortable majority of 118 seat in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.
Dienstbier, 41, is a defense lawyer by training. The freshly minted senator defeated Civic Democrat (ODS) representative Dan Jiránek, the current mayor of Kladno, in the second round of voting on Saturday winning over 65 percent of the vote. The turnout at the polls was less than 18 percent. In the first round of voting held on March 19, Dienstbier won 44.27 percent of the vote to Jiránek’s 27.18 percent; the turnout was 23.32 percent.
Dienstbier was born in Washington, DC, where his father was a correspondent for Czechoslovak Radio. He studied law at Charles University and helped organize the student demonstrations of November 1989. He later worked in the office of Prime Minister Marian Čalfa.
