Alexandr Vondra

Alexandr Vondra
Minister of Defence
In office
13 July 2010 – 7 December 2012
Prime Minister Petr Nečas
Preceded by Martin Barták
Succeeded by Karolína Peake
Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs
In office
9 January 2007 – 8 May 2009
Preceded by Štefan Füle (as Minister)
Senator from Litoměřice
In office
28 October 2006 – 28 October 2012
Preceded by Zdeněk Bárta
Succeeded by Hassan Mezian
6th Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
In office
4 September 2006 – 9 January 2007
Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek
Preceded by Cyril Svoboda
Succeeded by Karel Schwarzenberg
Personal details
Born (1961-08-17) 17 August 1961
Prague, Czech Republic
Political party ODS
Alma mater Univerzita Karlova
Profession Politician

Alexandr "Saša" Vondra (Czech pronunciation: [ˈalɛksandr̩ ˈvondra]) (born 17 August 1961) is a Czech politician, who stepped down from the political scene in 2012. He is a member of Civic Democratic Party. He served as a senator, a minister of defence, a minister of foreign affairs and a deputy minister for European affairs.

Life

He was born in Prague.[1] He graduated in geography from Charles University in Prague in 1984, receiving a Doctor in Natural Sciences degree one year later.[1] In the mid-1980s he was a dissident and Charter 77 signatory.[2] After organizing a demonstration in January 1989, Vondra was imprisoned for two months.[2] In November 1989, while the Velvet Revolution was underway, he co-founded the Civic Forum.[1]

Politics

In 1990-1992, Vondra was foreign policy advisor to President Václav Havel.[1] When Havel stepped down from his office during dissolution of Czechoslovakia and at the same time independent Czech foreign service began to be formed, Vondra became Czech Republic's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in August 1992, responsible i. a. for negotiating the division of Czechoslovak diplomacy.[3] In 1996 he was a chief negotiator for the Czech-German Declaration on the Mutual Relations and their Future Development.[2] In March 1997 Vondra left to become the Czech Ambassador to the United States, staying there until July 2001.[3] From March 2001 to January 2003, Vondra was the Czech Government Commissioner responsible for preparation of 2002 Prague summit of the NATO.[3] From January to July 2003 Vondra was a Deputy Foreign Minister.[3]

He became an ODS member only after his ministerial appointment and the victory in Senate elections in October 2006. He is generally perceived as pro-United States[4] and wary of European integration though less than ODS eurosceptic hardliners, and had good connections to Havel (his announced return to politics in spring 2006 was taken as a sign of ODS trying to appease the political centre) .

Vondra was mentioned as a possible nominee to serve as European commissioner in 2009.[5]

He participated at the international conference European Conscience and Communism, which took place under his patronage at the Czech Senate in Prague in June 2008.[6]

In November 2012, he decided to step down from politics, due to the loss of credibility following several corruption accusations and his previous relentless effort to pursue an installation of a US military missile radar, despite the prevailing opposition of his fellow Czech citizens.

Family

He is married and has 3 children with his wife Martina: Vojtěch (1991), Anna (1993) and Marie (1996).[1] He has another child, Jáchym (1992), with Veronika Vrecionová.

Trivia

In 2014, he rejected Noam Chomsky's statements about dissidents in the East European communist countries, and remarked that "at the time when people like Havel were in Communist jails over their fight for freedom, Chomsky advocated Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia from the Boston cafes" and he warned that if the world listens to "rubbish from these people" it will once again lead to concentration camps and gulags.[7][8][9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "RNDr. Alexandr Vondra". Government of the Czech Republic. Archived from the original on 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  2. 1 2 3 Lenka Ponikelská. "'Saša' Vondra: dissident minister". Czech Business Weekly. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Dr. Alexandr Vondra". Alexandr Vondra official website. Archived from the original on 21 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
  4. ↑ Jana Mlčochová. "Russian crude, Aero's deal and the ČSA trap". Czech Business Weekly. Retrieved 2008-02-11. [Vondra is] Known for his pro-Western and especially pro-U.S. stance
  5. ↑ "Czech running mates?". POLITICO. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism - Press Release". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. 9 June 2008. Archived from the original on 2011-05-10. Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  7. ↑ http://www.praguepost.com/czech-news/39448-chomsky-east-european-dissidents-did-not-suffer-much#ixzz3dy5kMQZy
  8. ↑ "Východoevropští disidenti moc netrpěli, otřel se Chomsky o Havla a spol. - Domov - Lidovky.cz". Lidovky.cz. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Martin Hekrdla. "Lesk a bída drzých čel". Literární noviny. Retrieved 1 April 2016.

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