Jan Ruml

Jan Ruml (born 5 March 1953 in Prague^[1]) is a Czech politician who was interior minister from 1992 to 1997.

Jan Ruml
Minister of the Interior
In office 2 July 1992 – 7 November 1997
Prime Minister	Václav Klaus
Preceded by	Tomáš Sokol
Succeeded by	Jindřich Vodička
Senator from Prague 6
In office 21 November 1998 – 21 November 2004
Preceded by	Jan Koukal
Succeeded by	Karel Schwarzenberg
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 1 June 1996 – 19 June 1998
Member of the Federal Assembly
In office 6 June 1992 – 31 December 1992
Leader of the US–DEU
In office 22 February 1998 – 1 December 1999
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Karel Kühnl
Personal details
Born	(1953-03-05) 5 March 1953 (age 72)[1] Prague, Czechoslovakia[1]
Political party	OF (1989–1991) ODS (1991–1998) US–DEU (1998–2004) SZ (2010–2014)
Alma mater	University of West Bohemia

Government career

Before becoming Interior Minister, Jan Ruml served as deputy Interior Minister in 1991.^[2]

Jan Ruml announced his resignation as Interior Minister on 21 October 1997.^[3] He then challenged Václav Klaus for the leadership of the Civic Democratic Party over a party funding scandal.^[3][4] However Klaus won with 72% of the vote at a party conference on the 14 December 1997.^[3]

Freedom Union

Jan Ruml became leader of a breakaway party called Freedom Union, which was founded on the 17 January 1998.^[3] He led the party into the 1998 election, where the party won 8.6% of the vote and 19 seats and went into opposition.^[3]

Jan Ruml announced his resignation as leader of the Freedom Union on the 1 December 1999.^[3]