At its weekend meeting, the national congress of the Women's Association endorsed the candidacy of Šarka Jelínková, the current vice-chair of the KDU-ČSL, Dita Vávrová, chair of the KDU-ČSL MO in Náchod, and Monika Brzesková, mayor of Kravaře.
"We have women politicians and they want to get involved. All three female candidates have experience in local and regional politics and have had significant professional careers. In addition, two of them are completely new faces at the national level and we need that if we want to be more interesting to voters. If the KDU-ČSL wants to tell voters that it understands them, then women must be in the leadership, otherwise we will keep losing to them." Adds Michaela Šojdrová, the newly elected chair of the KDU-ČSL Women's Association.
Šárka Jelínková is considering whether to run for a third term as Vice-President. In any case, she agrees with the need to strengthen the number of women in the party leadership: "I know what it is like to be alone in an all-male presidency and with all due respect to my colleagues, whom I respect, this is not a balanced community. Thank you for the trust and support I have from the Women's Association, I appreciate it. For me this position has always been a service, not a personal ambition, which is why I am considering my candidacy and of course I support the candidacy of my female colleagues."
Dita Vávrová won the nomination of her district organisation in Náchod, is a Náchod councillor and won a seat in the just-concluded regional elections. On her candidacy and the support of the Women's Association she says: "I think this is an important moment in deciding the future of Christian Democratic politics, whether it will just write about gender equality in its programme or whether it will also implement it. As an advocate, I feel a great need to address the concrete problems of the people, laws must be understandable and enforceable, and that is what the Christian Democratic Union of Czechoslovakia should strive for as a parliamentary party. I appreciate the fact that I have the trust of the people and my party colleagues at the local and regional level and if I can convince the delegates at the congress, I believe that I will be a visible face of our party in my position as KDU-ČSL Vice-Chair."
Monika Brzesková is a candidate from the Moravian-Silesian Region and is an experienced municipal and regional politician. "It's a challenge for me because Prague is far from us. But that is why I would like to take up this challenge and represent KDU-ČSL members, citizens, even from distant regions in the Presidency. I want to use my many years of experience as mayor and councillor of the MSLK. The KDU-ČSL needs truly new and feminine faces in the leadership." says Brzesková (under her maiden name Žídková, she won the Miss Czech Republic and Miss Europe titles in 1995).
Vice-Chairwoman SŽ, Pavlína Stankayová reminds us why this electoral convention is so important: "The KDU-ČSL congress will elect new leadership on 18-19 October to lead the party into the crucial elections. That is why it is so important how visible and interesting personalities they elect to the leadership and also whether they will go beyond their own limits and increase the representation of women in the presidency. That will undoubtedly be of interest to voters."
The KDU-ČSL Board of Directors has authorized 1st Vice-Chair Pavlína Stankayová to submit these proposals for candidates for Vice-Chair of the party at the congress on 18 October 2024.
KDU-ČSL/ gnews - RoZ
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