Jan Šrámek

Jan Šrámek
Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia in exile
In office 21 July 1940 – 5 April 1945
President	Edvard Beneš
Personal details
Born	8 November 1870 Grygov, Austria-Hungary
Died	22 April 1956 (aged 86) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Political party	Czechoslovak People's Party
Alma mater	Palacký University, Olomouc
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Jan Šrámek (November 8, 1870, Grygov, Margraviate of Moravia - April 22, 1956, Prague) was Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile from July 21, 1940 to April 5, 1945. He was the first chairman of the Czechoslovak People's Party^[1] and was a Monsignor.^[2]

From 1945 on Czechoslovakia was ruled by the Communist-dominated National Front which also included Šrámek's People's Party. Šrámek and his co-partisans worried about the increasing role of the communist party. Since 1947 the popular support for communists started to diminish. In order to consolidate power, communists carried out a coup in February 1948. Mgr. Šrámek had to resign as the chairman of the People's Party. His successor Rostislav Petr, and priest Josef Plojhar, a "strong man" within the People's Party, supported unconditional collaboration with communists.

Mgr. Jan Šrámek died 22 April 1956.

References

1. Gehler, Michael; Kaiser, Wolfram (2004). Christian Democracy in Europe Since 1945. Taylor & Francis. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-203-64623-6.
2. Churchill, Winston; Gilbert, Martin; Martin Gilbert (2001). The Churchill War Papers: The Ever-Widening War, 1941. W W Norton & Company Incorporated. p. 516. ISBN 978-0-393-01959-9. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)