Alexandr Vondra

Alexandr "Saša" Vondra (born August 17, 1961 in Prague ) is a Czech politician and former minister ( ODS ).

Life

Vondra received her PhD in geography from Charles University in Prague in 1985. From 1990 to 1992 he was foreign policy advisor to Václav Havel , then until 1997 Deputy Foreign Minister of the newly founded Czech Republic and from 1997 to 2001 Czech Ambassador to the USA .

From 2001 to 2002 he was government representative for the preparation of the 2002 NATO summit in Prague. From 2003 to 2004 he had a teaching position for the German Marshall Fund in Prague and in 2004 he became “Professor for Euro-Atlantic Relations” at New York University in the Prague branch . From 2004 to 2006 he was Austrian managing director of Dutko Worldwide, a US consulting company in Prague.

From September 4, 2006 to January 9, 2007, Vondra was Foreign Minister under the civil government of Mirek Topolánek (ODS), after which he was Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs until the overthrow of the center-right Mirek Topolánek II government in March 2009.

In October 2006, Vondra was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic in the Litoměřice constituency. In the 2012 Senate elections, he was unable to defend his mandate. With third place in the first ballot behind the ČSSD and KSČM candidates , he did not even make it into the runoff election.

In the recent center-right government under Prime Minister Petr Nečas (ODS), Vondra was the Czech Republic's Minister of Defense since July 2010 . He announced his resignation on November 28, 2012, with effect from December 7, 2012. He justified his resignation with his clearly missed re-election in the Senate elections in early October 2012. In fact, there have been frequent calls for resignation against Vondra in connection with the award overpriced government contracts.