Education
Sobotka graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in 1968 as MUDr.
Sobotka graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in 1968 as MUDr.
He was a President of the Senate and ceremonially the second highest representative of the country. Sobotka was a candidate in Czechoslovakian presidential election 2013. In the 1st round of the election held in January 2013, he placed 8th with 2,46% (126 846 votes).
He didn"t qualify for the second round.
After the Nazi occupation during World World War II his family moved to Liberec where he still lives and where his father was a respected and popular teacher. And entered the surgical department of the Liberec Hospital, where he transferred to the X-ray department after two years.
From 1991 to 1996 he was a senior consultant and Head of the Radiology Department. His political career started in the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
He served as Councillor of the City of Liberec from 1990 to 1998.
Fellow Senators elected him Vice President of that chamber many times. He was elected President of the Senate for a two-year term on December 15, 2004, and re-elected for another two-year term in 2006.
He was a member of the „for-all“ Civic Forum and joined the right-wing Civic Democratic Party after its foundation in 1991: he is a chairman of its Liberec regional organisation. He was elected member of the Senate for the constituency of Liberec for a shortened term of two years in the first Senate election held in 1996, and re-elected for two full six-year terms in 1998 and 2004.