Alexandr Vondra

Life

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

Career

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

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{{cite news|publisher=Czech Business Weekly|author=Jana Mlčochová|title= Russian crude, Aero's deal and the ČSA trap| url=http://www.cbw.cz/en/russian-crude--aero%E2%80%99s-deal-and-the-csa-trap/3622.html |access-date=2008-02-11|quote=[Vondra is] Known for his pro-Western and especially pro-U.S. stance}} 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.

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.

In November 2012, he decided to step down from politics due to the mounting pressure, his defeat in the Senate elections and criticism over one of the contracts during the 2009 Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

In 2019, Vondra returned to politics when the Civic Democratic Party nominated him in European Parliament election. He was on 15th place on the party's list. He received 29,536 preferential votes and was elected.

Vondra then ran for the position of Vice-Chairman of ODS. He received 443 votes of 502 which was more than any other candidate and was elected.

Teaching

After his 2012 exit from politics, Vondra served as director of the Prague Centre for Transatlantic Relations at the CEVRO Institute in Prague, as well as an instructor for both Bachelor and Master level courses at the university.

Family

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

Political views

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.

References

References

1. "RNDr. Alexandr Vondra". Government of the Czech Republic.
2. Lenka Ponikelská. (October 2016). "'Saša' Vondra: dissident minister". Czech Business Weekly.
3. "Dr. Alexandr Vondra". Alexandr Vondra official website.
4. "Czech running mates?". POLITICO.
5. (9 June 2008). "Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism - Press Release". [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]].
6. (2012-11-28). "Ve vládě končí další ministr. Vondra odchází z obrany". Economia, a.s..
7. (21 January 2019). "Vondra se vrací do politiky, za ODS kandiduje v eurovolbách. Jedničkou je Zahradil".
8. (27 May 2019). "Eurovolby: "Skokan" Vondra uspěl z 15. místa. Uspěl i generál Hynek Blaško".
9. (18 January 2020). "Havloid se hlásí, řekl Vondra ODS. Chce, ať Češi vyberou národního ptáka".
10. "Prague Centre for Transatlantic Relations (PCTR) - CEVRO INSTITUTE".
11. "Prague Post".
12. (5 June 2014). "Východoevropští disidenti moc netrpěli, otřel se Chomsky o Havla a spol.". Lidovky.cz.
13. Martin Hekrdla. "Lesk a bída drzých čel". Literární noviny.