Lubomír Štrougal (born October 19, 1924 in Veselí nad Lužnicí) is a former Czech politician and communist Czechoslovakia prime minister.

After serving in Germany’s industry during the World War II (the total appointment order for Czech people – ) he finished the law studies at the Charles University in Prague. He entered the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and since the late 1950s was a member of its leadership (member of its Central Committee).

Between 1959 and 1961 Štrougal was agriculture minister, then till 1965 he was interior minister.

In 1968 he became deputy prime minister to Oldřich Černík. At first he refused the 1968 Occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact forces, but later became one of the prominent representatives of Gustáv Husák‘s regime. Štrougal was the Czechoslovakia’s prime minister from January 28, 1970 to October 12, 1988.

Because of the conflicts with the communist party chairman Milouš Jakeš, he resigned as the prime minister. He criticized the state of the party, the executive and the society. During the 1989 Velvet Revolution Štrougal was one of candidates for the communist party chairmanship, but later left political stage and in February 1990 he was expelled from the party.

The Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism Police of the Czech Republic ( ) accused Štrougal, that in his function in 1965, he prevented investigation of crimes conducted by the communist State Security in 1948 and 1949. However, the Prague city court discharged him in 2002 due to lack of evidence.

External links

• Štrougal’s biography on the website of the Czech Government