Alexandr Vondra (; born 17 August 1961) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic from 2010 to 2012 under Prime Minister

Petr Nečas Petr Nečas (; born 19 November 1964) is a Czech former politician who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic and leader of the Civic Democratic Party from 2010 to 2013, and as Member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 1993 to 20 ...

and has been

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) since 2019. Vondra also served as Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs between 2007 and 2009, as well as

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

from 2006 to 2007, both in cabinets of Prime Minister

Mirek Topolánek Mirek Topolánek (, born 15 May 1956) is a Czech Republic, Czech politician and business manager who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2009 and the leader of the Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic), Civic Democr ...

. Vondra is also former Senator from

Litoměřice Litoměřice (; ) is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument reservation. The town is the seat of the Roman C ...

(2006–2012) and Czech Ambassador to the United States (1997–2001). He was candidate for the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

seat in the 2019 election and received 29,536 preferential votes and was elected Member of the European Parliament representing the Civic Democratic Party (ODS).

Life

Vondra was born in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. He graduated in geography from

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

in 1984, receiving a Doctor in Natural Sciences degree one year later. In the mid-1980s he was a

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

and

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...

signatory. After organizing a demonstration in January 1989, Vondra was imprisoned for two months. In November 1989, while the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

was underway, he co-founded the

Civic Forum The Civic Forum (, OF) was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The corresponding movement in Slovakia was called Public Against Violence ( – VPN). The Civic Forum's purpo ...

Politics

In 1990–1992, Vondra was foreign policy advisor to President

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

. When Havel stepped down from his office during the

dissolution of Czechoslovakia The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on December 31, 1992, was the Self-determination, self-determined Partition (politics), partition of the federal republic of Fifth Czechoslovak Republic, Czechoslovakia into the independent ...

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 An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, 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 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. 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-

and wary of

European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

, though less than ODS

eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies and seek refor ...

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 Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

) . 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 The Senate () is the upper house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The seat of the Senate is Wallenstein Palace in Prague. Structure The Senate has 81 members, chosen in single-seat constituencies through the two-round system. If no ...

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.

Trivia

In 2014, he rejected

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

'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 Pol Pot (born Saloth Sâr; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian politician, revolutionary, and dictator who ruled the communist state of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 until Cambodian–Vietnamese War, his overthrow in 1979. During ...

'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 camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s and

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

References

External links

*
Vondra's statement at the general debate of the 61st session
of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

(scanned images in

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

format) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vondra, Alexandr Charter 77 signatories Czech human rights activists Czech democracy activists Defence ministers of the Czech Republic Ministers of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic Politicians from Prague Living people 1961 births Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) senators Ambassadors of the Czech Republic to the United States People of the Velvet Revolution Civic Forum politicians Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) Government ministers Charles University alumni MEPs for the Czech Republic 2019–2024 Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) MEPs MEPs for the Czech Republic 2024–2029