“In an effort to maintain peace and maximum privacy MP Jaroslav Bašta and his family, we ask for respect and restraint with regard to communications regarding his health concerns. We all wish our former presidential candidate strength and think about it,” SPD spokeswoman Barbora Štastná said in a statement.

SPD MP Jaroslav Foldyna added to Seznam Zprávy that Bašta really wasn’t doing well. “Given his age and illness, the situation is serious.” Bast is 75 years old.

Deputy Karla Maříková also confirmed the seriousness of the health condition. “I am very sorry, because I know him as a very humble and extraordinary person with a lot of life experiences. At this time, because of her privacy, I would like to ask everyone to be considerate when talking about her health. I wish Mr Bašt a lot of strength, we all like him very much at the SPD parliamentary club,” he said.

Bašta took part in the recent presidential election, running with the signatures of 20 SPD club members. He is the oldest among the eight candidates. He placed fifth in the first round, gaining 4.45 percent of the vote, and did not advance to the second round of the election.

Jaroslav Bašta was elected to the People’s Representative Council in 1996, among other things he headed the Security Information Services (BIS) control committee and was a member of the security committee. From July 1998 to March 2000, he served as minister without a post in Miloš Zeman’s government, in charge of the “Clean Hands” campaign, through which the cabinet wanted to fight corruption and economic crime.

He relinquished his parliamentary mandate in September 2000 to take up the position of ambassador to Russia. After returning from Moscow and before being appointed ambassador to Kyiv, he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Current Deputy First Minister for Political Affairs.

After 1989, he worked with ČSSD, and became a member of it in 1994. He left Social Democracy in March 2019, and that same year he joined the Security, Responsibility, Solidarity (BOS) movement, which he unsuccessfully ran for Social Democratic Party. European Parliament and in 2020 he became its chairman. In 2021, he joined the SPD.