Meeting of the presidency of the ANO movement on the result of the presidential election, February 8, 2023, Prague. Moravian-Silesian governor and deputy Ivo Vondrák talks to journalists after he finished the meeting as vice-chairman of the ANO movement.
Prague – Moravian-Silesian governor Ivo Vondrák resigned from the position of vice-chairman of the ANO movement. At the same time, at the meeting of the presidency, he proposed the organization of a program conference of the movement, which, according to him, could take place in Ostrava. He told journalists as he left the ANO leadership meeting, which continues. According to the first vice-chairman of the movement, Karel Havlíček, it is not yet clear whether ANO will want to add a new vice-chairman to the leadership. The regular assembly will take place next year.
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Before the presidential election, Vondrák supported Petr Pavel, the opponent of the head of ANO and former prime minister Andrej Babiš. For this, he earned criticism from, for example, other vice-presidents of the movement. He also had reservations about the direction of the movement. He became vice-chairman of ANO last February.
According to Vondrák, today's discussion was on a level. There were criticisms against him, he himself tried to explain his decisions. According to him, Babiš did not react in any way to his decision. “I would be a lone player in the presidency team,” said Vondrák about the reason for resigning. “I perceive that the position only makes sense if you can realize your ideas,” he added.
Havlíček appreciated the decent discussion and constructive meeting, during which, according to him, some members of the board raised critical opinions. They did not concern the further direction of YES. “A certain degree of criticism was given to a certain form of how that (Vondrak's) opinion was presented,” he noted.
Regarding the program conference, Vondrák said that it is necessary to decide who wants to go where, how the movement wants to profile itself, in order to anchor it for voters in the future. “There are a lot of people who feel that we should go back to what we were originally. When I joined the YES movement, I joined the center party, which was liberal, there were a number of personalities that I perceived from of his academic life,” explained Vondrák.
At the time, he saw the movement as a way to involve people who have achieved something in their lives into politics. “However, lately I have the feeling that things are leaning to the left,” Vondrák noted. According to him, the groups of voters who currently feel a little neglected are being forgotten.
For now, he wants to remain a member of ANO, which he has been since 2017. According to him, the future depends on practical political direction. He ruled out that he would currently want to move to another party or start a new party. He wants to remain in the ANO club in the House of Representatives. “It's a question of how some of my colleagues will continue to tolerate me. I firmly believe that maybe the edges will be sharpened a little. But I simply have my opinions, which I stand by, which not everyone perceives the same way, but that's how it is in politics,” he added.
