Babis taps former health minister Vojtech for Finland ambassador post

Former Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch will probably become the Czech ambassador to Finland. SeznamZprávy reports that his nomination was approved by the government last week. President Miloš Zeman has yet to agree to send Vojtěch to a diplomatic post in Helsinki. Vojtěch headed the Ministry of Health from December 2017 until last September, when he resigned.

Information on Vojtěch’s nomination for ambassador was obtained from the SeznamZprávy website from two sources, one of which is a government member. The former minister was nominated by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) for a diplomatic post to Helsinki, the server said. Therefore, according to him, among experts in diplomatic conditions, the president is not expected to disagree with Vojtěch’s posting.

Neither Vojtěch nor Babiš managed to get the reaction of Vojtěch or Babiš. Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček (ČSSD) only told the server that he could not comment on the information.

Vojtěch (34) graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague and media studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. From 2013 to 2014, he worked as a lawyer at MAFRA. In June 2014, he became the secretary at the Ministry of Finance headed by Andrej Babiš. Since September 2016, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna.

In the past, he was a member of the ODS. In the elections to the Chamber of Deputies in October 2017, he was elected a deputy in the South Bohemian Region as a non-partisan for the ANO Party.

Vojtěch managed the Ministry of Health during last year’s first phase of the covid-19 pandemic, which unprecedentedly restricted everyday life, free movement, and the country’s economy. 

Vojtěch attracted attention and a wave of criticism through several personnel changes, which he made, among other things, in the management of teaching hospitals. He also faced criticism for allegedly unfavorable orders from the Ministry of Health to purchase protective equipment.