Alena Schillerová

Alena Schillerová (née Dupalová, born 18 March 1964) is a Czech politician and lawyer who served as Minister of Finance in the government of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš from 2017 to 2021. Schillerová is the first woman in the history of the Czech Republic to hold the office.

Early life and education
A graduate of Masaryk University, Schillerová was awarded a JUDr. degree in law and received a PhD. in administrative and agricultural cooperative law, respectively in 1988 and 2000.

2010s
On 1 January 2016, Schillerová was appointed expert deputy Minister of Finance, replacing Simona Hornochová. By the end of 2017, she showed her priority in the position of deputy was also the preparation of a completely new law on income tax.

In May 2017, Andrej Babiš requested that Schillerová should replace him as Minister of Finance. At the time, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka rejected her nomination, saying she was too close to Babiš. Instead, Ivan Pilný was nominated.

At the end of June 2018, Babiš requested Schillerová again for the post of Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic in his second cabinet. She was appointed by Zeman again on 27 June 2018 and became vice-president on 30 April 2019.

During her tenure, the government introduced a 7% digital tax in 2019 aimed at boosting state revenue by taxing advertising by global internet giants like Google and Facebook, based on earlier ideas for pan-European legislation.

2020s
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic, Schillerová was one of the key people determining the economic strategy, helping the self-employed affected by the effects of the pandemic. According to Neolivní, she lives with an income of CZK 173,000 per month in a luxury apartment of 100 m 2 in Salvátorská Street in Prague 1, while the state pays for her living expenses.

In the 2021 Czech parliamentary election, Schillerová was a non-party leader of the ANO 2011 movement in the South Moravian Region, elected as an MP with 22,968. She became the new chairperson of the ANO 2011 Parliamentary Club on 12 October, replacing Jaroslav Faltýnek. Schillerová joined the ANO 2011 movement on 19 October 2021, later becoming its vice-president at the movement's assembly in February 2022.

In the 2022 Czech municipal elections, Schillerová did not run for the Brno City Council from the 30th place as a candidate of the ANO 2011. She also ran for the Brno-Komín Municipal Council from the last 17th place of the ANO 2011 candidate list, but did not get the mandate of the representative of the city district.

In February 2023, Babiš and Karel Havlíček named Schillerová the new main face of the movement. At the party assembly in February 2024, she defended the position of rank-and-file vice president.

Personal life
Schillerová is married to Jaroslav Schiller; they have two children named Petra and Jaroslav. Her daughter, Petra Rusňaková, is married to David Rusňák, who was investigated in the case of false information from police database. Schillerová has three grandchildren (Jaroslav's children Jaroslav and Laura; Petra's son František).

Controversy
The Czech government's official website states that she speaks English, German and Russian. However, her proficiency in English came under scrutiny in 2020 after a series of reports by Czech news outlets questioning it. Further concerns were raised by the minister's refusal to conduct interviews in English and her reported lack of participation in EU meetings conducted in the language.

At the end of January 2022, Seznam Zprávy reported that the Ministry of Finance had spent almost 2 million CZK on salaries and rewards for the photographer and cameraman, employees of the press department, who took Schillerová's photos and filmed her from her social media profiles. However, the Czech Republic should demand Schillerová's money back, as there might be use of public assets for personal use.