Josef Řihák

Josef Řihák (born April 25, 1959, in Karlovy Vary) is a former Czech politician who served as a member of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and, from 2008 to 2014, as a senator representing District No. 18—Příbram. Following the 2002 municipal elections, he became a city council member and served as mayor of Příbram from 2006 to 2012. From 2002 to 2008, he served in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

From 2012 to 2020, he was a representative in the Central Bohemian Region, having previously held this position from 2000 to 2007. Following the 2012 regional elections, he became governor of the Central Bohemian Region as part of a coalition between the ČSSD and the KSČM, before resigning from this post in June 2014. From 2017 to 2020, he served as a regional councilor. He is also a former member of Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic and a former mayor of Příbram.

Biography He graduated from the Secondary Agricultural Technical School in Březnice and then (after completing his basic military service) began working at the District Veterinary Administration in Příbram. He earned a degree through distance learning from the University of Veterinary Sciences in Brno (majoring in food hygiene and agricultural ecology). He holds the title of MVDr. From 1995 to 1998, he worked as a district veterinary inspector, and later as the head of the Veterinary and Hygiene Station in Příbram.

Political Career From 1998 to 2023, he was a member of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD).

He was elected to the Regional Council of the Central Bohemian Region in 2000 as a candidate for the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). In the 2002 elections, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic as a ČSSD candidate (Central Bohemian Region constituency). He was a member of the Chamber’s Agriculture Committee. He retained his seat in the 2006 elections. From 2006 to 2007, he served as vice-chairman of the Chamber’s Agriculture Committee. He remained in the Chamber until October 2008, when he resigned his seat. In the Chamber of Deputies, he co-sponsored five bills, two of which were passed (including the Act on Public Non-Profit Institutional Healthcare Facilities).

He has long been active in local politics. In the 2002, 2006, and 2010 municipal elections, he was elected to the Příbram City Council as a member of the ČSSD. As early as 2002, he also joined the Příbram City Council, which at the time was still led by Mayor Ivan Fuksa of the ODS. In the fall of 2006, he headed the Social Democrats’ candidate list in the Příbram municipal elections. The party won two more seats compared to the 2002 elections. After two weeks of negotiations, Řihák was elected the city’s new mayor as the representative of a minority coalition between the ČSSD and the SNK European Democrats, which was supported by council members from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. He subsequently resigned from his seat on the Central Bohemian Regional Council.

Since 2007, he has represented all mayors in the fight against the deployment of a U.S. radar system in the Czech Republic. Following the announcement of plans to abolish the Brdy Military Training Area, he led initiatives to designate the area as a protected zone.

In 2008, the ČSSD-SNK coalition at the Příbram City Hall collapsed, and the ODS returned to lead the city; Řihák remained mayor. In 2010, the Social Democrats’ slate, led by him, won 31.87 percent of the vote in the elections and gained three additional seats (for a total of 11 out of 25). Shortly after the elections, the ČSSD-ODS coalition was restored.

The ČSSD-ODS coalition at the Příbram City Council is stable. The opposition criticizes it primarily for its efforts to privatize certain facilities. The sale of Polyclinic I met with the strongest opposition from the opposition and part of the public; doctors who had their practices at Polyclinic I also opposed the sale at the time, and Řihák’s predecessor and ODS coalition member Ivan Fuksa also disagreed with the circumstances. A petition against the sale was signed by 4,329 city residents; the privatization also led to an unsuccessful attempt to remove Řihák from the office of mayor.

Under Řihák’s leadership, the Příbram City Hall, with the help of EU subsidies, succeeded in renovating the bus station and the area surrounding the cultural center, launching an extensive renovation of T.G.M. Square and its surroundings, and, more recently, renovating the Březohorský housing estate with its central 17. listopadu Square.

In December 2011, Řihák was the target of an attack when an unknown perpetrator set his cottage on fire. Řihák described the incident as an act of revenge.

Following the David Rath corruption scandal, he ran in 2012 for the position of Social Democratic Party’s lead candidate for the regional elections and won the nomination. Under his leadership, the Social Democrats won the election. However, negotiations to support a Social Democratic minority government failed, so Řihák’s party reached a cooperation agreement with the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), which included the KSČM joining the regional council. The Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), however, maintained that this did not constitute the formation of a coalition. On November 20, 2012, Řihák was elected governor of the Central Bohemian Region; he intended to retain his seat in the Senate but announced his resignation as mayor. On December 10, 2012, he was indeed replaced as mayor of Příbram by Pavel Pikrt, who described his predecessor as the city’s best mayor since 1989. He did so three days later.

In the 2014 municipal elections, he retained his seat on the Příbram City Council, having headed the local ČSSD ticket. The party, however, suffered significant losses, losing seven seats and being forced into the opposition. The post-election situation was also marked by his dispute with his successor as mayor of Příbram, Pavel Pikrt, who resigned from the ČSSD but retained his seat on the city council. In the concurrent 2014 elections for the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, he again ran as a ČSSD candidate in District No. 18—Příbram. However, with 18.89% of the vote, he finished in third place and thus did not advance to the second round.

On November 3, 2014, the Central Bohemian Regional Council appointed him to head the Regional Property Commission. He was re-elected as a regional councilor in the 2016 elections. In October 2017, he was elected regional councilor for investments and public procurement. In the 2020 elections, he ran for re-election as a regional councilor but was unsuccessful. He thus also stepped down from his position as regional councilor.

Personal life Řihák is married and has a son and a daughter. He is a recipient of the PŘÍSTAV Award, which was presented to him in 2010 by the Czech Council for Children and Youth for his support of extracurricular work with children and youth.

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