# Zdeněk Hřib

Zdeněk Hřib (born 21 May 1981) is a Czech healthcare manager and politician, who has served as chair of the Czech Pirate Party since November 2024, and served as the Mayor of Prague from November 2018 to February 2023.
Initially a physician, Hřib held managerial and consulting positions in state, corporate and non-profit healthcare entities dedicated to digitization, quality control, and consumer protection. He ran unsuccessfully in the 2014 Prague municipal election, but assumed office following the 2018 municipal election, where the Pirates finished second and formed a governing coalition with the third- and fourth-placed parties that held 39 out of 65 seats in the Prague City Assembly.

## Early life and career

Zdeněk Hřib was born on 21 May 1981 in Slavičín, near Zlín in the south-east of the Czech Republic. He studied medicine at Charles University in Prague and participated in a student exchange program in Taiwan.
Subsequently, Hřib held managerial positions in the healthcare industry, focusing on digitization of healthcare services. Since 2012, he has been the founding director of a non-profit organization that provides quality control, efficiency assessment and consulting for healthcare providers, as well as consumer protection for healthcare customers.
In 2013, Hřib became a registered supporter of the Czech Pirate Party, and ran unsuccessfully in the 2014 Prague municipal election.

## Political career
### Mayor of Prague (2018–2023)

The Pirates finished second in the 2018 Prague municipal election, winning 13 out of 65 seats in the Prague City Assembly, and formed a governing coalition with the third- and fourth-placed lists which held 39 out of 65 seats. Hřib, as the leading Pirate candidate with 75,082 votes, was elected the Mayor of Prague on 15 November 2018 by the Prague City Assembly, taking over the office from Adriana Krnáčová.
In 2018, during a meeting with foreign diplomats in Prague, Hřib was asked by the Chinese ambassador to the Czech Republic to expel the representative of Taiwan, but refused to do so. He criticized a clause of the sister city agreement between Prague and Beijing that contained references to the One-China principle, stating that the policy is "a complicated matter of foreign politics between two countries" and therefore "has no place in the sister cities agreement". Hřib also subsequently criticized the retaliatory decision by the Chinese government to cancel a planned tour of China by the Prague Philharmonia as a politicization of culture. According to The Guardian, Hřib was responsible for restoring the "Czech Republic's image as a champion of human rights". Hřib visited Taiwan twice as the Mayor of Prague, first in 2019 and again in 2020.
On 17 January 2019, Hřib appealed to the city council to name a street in Prague in honor of Paweł Adamowicz, the former mayor of Gdańsk in Poland who was assassinated on 13 January 2019. On 5 June 2019, the street in Riegrovy Sady park named after Adamowicz was officially inaugurated. He renamed the square in front of the Russian embassy "Boris Nemtsov Square" in February 2020. In April 2020, Hřib oversaw the removal of a statue dedicated to Soviet marshal Ivan Konev, who is viewed by some in the Czech Republic as a symbol of Soviet-era oppression.
In December 2019, Hřib was among the four mayors of Visegrád Group capitals Prague, Warsaw, Bratislava and Budapest, who signed the Pact of Free Cities, agreeing to protect "common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, rule of law, social justice, tolerance and cultural diversity".
In April 2020, Hřib was put under police protection after Czech intelligence received evidence of a planned poisoning attack by the Russian secret service.

### Leader of the Pirate Party (2024–present)

In November 2024, Hřib was elected as leader of the Pirate Party.