Alexandr Vondra has announced he is stepping down as Czech defence
minister. Mr. Vondra made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon, saying
he had lost the trust of voters, who did not re-elect him to the Senate in
elections in October. He will officially take his leave at the end of next
week. His position had previously been weakened by a scandal surrounding
overspending on the Czech EU presidency in 2009, when he was deputy prime
minister for European affairs. Mr. Vondra, who is 51, was a dissident and
Charter 77 signatory and spent two months in jail in 1989 for organising
an
anti-communist demonstration.