“It is with deep sadness that we received the news of the passing of our member, MP Jaroslav Bašta, who unexpectedly left us at the age of 75 after a long and insidiously serious illness. The Czech Republic is losing a personality that will be difficult to replace. It is a huge loss for the SPD movement,” SPD spokeswoman Šťastná told Novinka on Monday.
“A man of firm principles and one of the last active politicians of the pre-November dissent has left. A worthy, decent and noble person who did a lot for the SPD, the Czech Republic and its citizens. Honor to his memory,” she emphasized.
Former president Miloš Zeman, with whom the MP used to work, also remembers Bašta. Bašta was a minister in his government. “I have always respected Jaroslav Bašta very much as a completely honest person. I am very sorry that he is no longer with us,” he said on Facebook.
Minister for ČSSD and presidential candidate
Jaroslav Bašta was born on May 15, 1948 in Pilsen. He studied archeology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. He was briefly imprisoned in the early 1970s and then worked as a laborer until the end of the 1980s. He was a signatory to the Charter 77 declaration.
He has been involved in politics since the 1990s, among other things in the lustration commission. In 1996, he entered the House of Representatives on the ČSSD candidate. Between 1998 and 2000, he was a minister without portfolio in the government of Miloš Zeman. He was also the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: Jan Handrejch, Novinky
Jaroslav Bašta
Between 2000 and 2005 he was ambassador to Russia, and from 2007 to 2010 he was ambassador to Ukraine.
He subsequently withdrew from politics. In 2019, he left the ČSSD and ran for the European Parliament as the leader of the BOS (Safety, Responsibility, Solidarity) movement from a non-party position. But he was not elected.
He returned to politics when he sat in the House of Representatives for the SPD movement from October 2021. The party nominated him as its candidate for the presidential election in 2023. Bašta received 248,375 votes in the first round and did not advance to the second round with a gain of 4.45 percent of the vote.
In May 2023, information appeared about Bašt’s serious health condition and hospitalization. SPD chairman Tomio Okamura mentioned that the MP had suffered a “sudden insidious illness”. He should have been put into artificial sleep.
A source from the vicinity of Baštov had previously told Novinka that it was supposed to be an oncological type of disease. There was talk of a tumor in the throat. Bašta never returned to the House of Representatives.
He should be replaced in the House of Representatives by Marcel Dlask, the administrative director of the Chvaletic power plant.
MP Bašta is in a serious condition in the hospital
Homemade
