Deputy Chairman of Mayors and Independents dies on mountain trip

The deputy chairman of the Mayors and Independents party and the long-term mayor of the Central Bohemian village of Dolní Břežany, Věslav Michalik, died at the age of 59 on Sunday, party Chairman Vít Rakušan has announced. News site Neovlivní.cz reports that the death occurred suddenly while Mr Michalik was holidaying in the mountains.

Věslav Michalik was flouted as the candidate for the position of Minister of Industry and Trade after last year’s elections into the Chamber of Deputies, but he renounced the nomination after suggestions of a possible conflict of interest, caused by his business activity, occurred in the media.

A mayor of Dolní Břežany for 18 years, Mr Michalik studied at the Czech Technical University’s Faculty of Nuclear Physics before going on to work in the Czech Academy of Sciences. He later switched to the financial sector before becoming Dolní Břežany’s mayor in 2004.

He was a member of the Mayors and Independents party since 2013 and soon became a member of the party leadership. He served as its deputy chairman from August 2021 until his death.

Vít Rakušan wrote on twitter after his colleague’s death that Michalik was a “great mayor and a good friend”.