Pavel Fischer
Pavel Fischer (born 26 August 1965) is a Czech politician and diplomat who has been Senator from Prague 12 since 2018. Fischer previously served as Czech Ambassador to France from 2003 to 2010. He was a candidate in the 2018 Czech presidential election and finished in third place with 10.23% of the vote. He was subsequently elected to the Czech Senate in the 2018 Senate elections. Following his election to the Senate he announced his intention to run in the next Czech presidential election. Early life and career. Fischer grew up in Prague and graduated in the field  of French and Czech languages at Charles University. He was the Czech Ambassador to France from 2003-2010, and has also served as Head of the Department of Politics in the office of the Czech president Václav Havel, and director of STEM, a non-profit institute in Prague focused on empirical sociological research and social analysis. Presidential campaign. On October 5, 2017 he announced his candidacy for President of the Czech Republic in the 2018 election. He received the nomination of 17 senators from Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party, Social Democrats, TOP 09 and Mayors and Independents . He stepped down as a director of STEM to focus on his candidacy. In the first round of the election, Fischer finished in third place with 10.23% of the vote. He endorsed Jiří Drahoš for the second round. Senator. In October 2018 he was elected to the Czech Senate, and subsequently announced his candidacy for the next Presidential election. As a Senator, Fischer sits as an Independent, and is the chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security, and a member of the Standing Senate Commission on Rural Development and the Permanent Delegation of the Parliament of the  Czech Republic to the Interparliamentary Union. Political views. Fischer is considered a conservative politician who supports the liberal concept of the state and traditional family values. Fischer supports closer integration of the Czech Republic with the European Union, orientation to the West and the strengthening of the bond between Europe and the United States. He stated his intention to play a unifying role in domestic politics, specifically between the government, parliament and society. He stated that Emmanuel Macron would be the preferred choice for the Czech Republic in the 2017 French presidential election. Fischer drew controversy on 16 December 2017  when he stated that he would not appoint a homosexual judge to the Constitutional Court. He subsequently apologised for this statement. Personal life. Fischer is a Roman Catholic. He and his wife Klára had four children, but their oldest son Vojtěch, who was severely disabled, died in 2013. On 13 February 2021 it was announced that he had fallen ill after contracting COVID-19.