“I decided to run for the European Parliament for the PRO party because I would like the conditions of Czech athletes to improve. And because of national interests,” said Růžička at Monday’s press conference.
Political activist and lawyer Rajchl sees the elections to the European Parliament as a referendum on the coalition Fiala government and as a springboard for the parliamentary elections in 2025. However, it would be a big surprise if Růžička eventually made it to the European Parliament. If he did manage to do it, it would mean (at least for a while) the end of training.
Vladimír Růžička in the days when he led Slovan Bratislava.
As a hockey player, Růžička became an Olympic champion (1998 in Nagano) and world champion (1985 in Prague). As a coach, the Czech native led him to two world championship titles (2005 and 2010).
At the club level, the Litvín native achieved the greatest success with Slavia, who under his leadership celebrated the extra league title in 2003 and 2008. In recent years, however, Růžiček’s coaching career has gone downhill. In the last season, he was prematurely recalled from Litvínov, in the current one he did not even last three months on the Bratislava Slovan substitute.
Růžička is not the only champion from Nagano who is or has been involved in top politics. In the past, Jiří Šlégr and Milan Hnilička got into the Chamber of Deputies, and Dominik Hašek will run for the Senate elections in the fall.
