The senator in the Šumperk constituency will be political scientist Stanislav Balík (independent), he won 54.25 percent of the vote. The current senator Miroslav Adámek (ANO) received 45.74 percent of the votes. 19.22 percent of voters took part in the second round of elections, 27.4 percent voted in the first a week ago. Balík has been the dean of the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University (MUNI) since 2019.
In the position of senator, Balík wants to focus on the restoration of Jesenice and Šumperska, devastated by floods. “I would like to be a mediating voice between the individual levels of government, between the region, the national level and local governments. Another priority that follows on from this is that people here in the region receive similar high-quality public services for the same high taxes as people in big cities, which they are not getting now,” says Balík. For example, he mentioned the availability of basic medical care.
In addition to political science, Balík also studied history. In 2002, he started working at the Faculty of Social Studies at MUNI. In 2008, he became the head of the political science department, ten years later he was appointed professor of political science.
Between 2001 and 2003, he worked as an expert in the conservative-liberal think-tank and publishing house Center for the Study of Democracy and Culture in Brno, where he was also the executive director and chairman of the supervisory board. From 2008 to 2013, he was a member of the scientific council of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. Since 2014, he has been the editor of the conservative-liberal review Kontexty.
Election results
In the first round of elections to the Senate, Balík won 44.38 percent of the votes, Adamek had 48.24 percent of the votes. In the Šumperk district, three candidates sought the post of senator this year. In 2018, Adamek won in Šumperk with 60.55 percent of the vote. Zdeněk Brož (for KDU-ČSL) finished second. Six candidates took part in the election. After counting the votes, Adamek said that he has yet to evaluate the outcome of the second round of elections.
“I thank all the voters who came to the polls. I am glad that a candidate has advanced who will uphold the same values that I have promoted (in the Senate) for six years. This means making our region visible at the central level as well and fighting for solutions to the problems we have here,” said Adámek, according to whom the campaign in the second round of the Senate elections was fair in the Šumperk district.
“I managed to convince my constituents to come. The opponent may not have succeeded. We both lost votes, but I lost significantly less than he did. When I look at the results in individual municipalities, there are municipalities where there was even an increase in voter turnout and an increase in my support,” Balík commented on his victory in the second round.
