Václav Klaus has served as President of the Czech Republic since 2003. He began his political career in 1989 as finance minister. At the end of 1990, he became the chairman of the Civic Forum, at that time the country’s strongest political entity. Following its demise in April 1991, he co-founded the Civic Democratic Party and remained its chairman until December 2002. Also in 1991, he was appointed vice chairman of the government of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic. Klaus won a parliamentary election victory in June 1992 and became prime minister of the Czech Republic, overseeing the "velvet divorce" of the Czechoslovak Federation. In 1996, he successfully defended his post as prime minister in election to the Chamber of Deputies. Following the collapse of the governing coalition, he tendered his resignation in November 1997. After a forced general election in 1998, he became chairman of the Chamber of Deputies for a four-year period. Klaus studied at the University of Economics, Prague, and received a Ph.D. from the Institute of Economics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.