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Vladimír Špidla (born April 21, 1951 in Prague) is a Czech social democratic politician. He was the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic in July 2002 - June 2004 and then was appointed Czech commissioner in the European Commission where he will serve at the post of employment, social affairs and equal opportunities.
Špidla studied history at Charles University of Prague. After his graduation in 1976, he took up a number of jobs including menial as he refused to fulfil political obligations necessary for better-qualified ones; he also worked as an archaeologist. He is married for the second time; he has two sons from his first marriage and another two children acquired by marriage. His hobbies include cross-country and marathon running. He speaks German and French, but his English is weaker; this was used to doubt his qualification for the EC.
After the Velvet revolution he entered local politics in the town of Jindrichuv Hradec where he lived and immediately joined the re-founded Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD, then called Czechoslovak Social Democracy). In 1991-1996 he served as the director of the local job centre. In 1992, he became a member of the Presidium of ČSSD, in March 1997 its statutory Vice-Chairman, and in April 2001 Chairman of ČSSD after its previous chairman Milos Zeman stepped aside. In 1996 he was elected to the parliament. He held the post of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in Zeman's government (July 22, 1998 to July 12, 2002).
He was appointed as Prime Minister on July 12, 2002 in the coalition government of his ČSSD together with small Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party and Freedom Union-Democratic Union. During that time, he also held President's powers from February 2, 2003 until March 7, 2003, as the term of the President had ended before the Parliament could elect a new one. His government tried, with great difficulties due to tensions within coalition and its bare majority in the parliament, to introduce reforms necessary to battle the growing budget deficit; however they were criticised by the opposition and pundits as being too mild and consisting rather of increasing taxes than cutting expenses and stimulating economic growth, with the government unwilling (and partly also unable due to its precarious situation) to take radical measures. Špidla resigned as Prime Minister in June 2004 after poor results of his party and coalition in general in the European Parliament election, 2004 and loss of support within ČSSD, and officially left office on July 26, 2004. Mild economic growth during his duty as prime minister, however, continued ( GDP 3.3% in 2001, 2.9% est. in 2004). He was succeeded by interior minister and deputy prime minister Stanislav Gross whose government will however not differ much from the previous one and was officially appointed on August 4. After a short hesitation Špidla accepted nomination to the European Commission, where, as of 22 November 2004, he is European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.
Špidla is considered a part of ČSSD's left wing (though he's strongly anti-communist); in foreign policy, he has always been strongly pro-European and supports further integration. His generally accepted image is a man of personal integrity and honesty (putting him at the top of Czech politicians) but a dry technocrat who couldn't communicate his undeniable statesman's vision to the public and wasn't even able to keep his own party in line as his predecessor did. His acceptance of the EC post was criticised as a "golden parachute", ousting the previous comparatively popular person, appointed by his own government, but also as running away from his battle to steer the course of ČSSD and Czech politics.
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