Adam Vojtěch will leave the Czech Health Ministry after the election

Prague, Oct 7 (ČTK) - Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch (ANO) will move to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Czech Republic’s Ambassador to Finland from 1 November, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) announced in a radio interview. 

Babiš added that if ANO remains in government after the elections, it will seek to control the Ministry of Health again. Vojtěch, 35, is the longest-serving Minister of Health in the history of the independent Czech Republic.

The Prime Minister considers Vojtěch's actions at the head of the ministry to have been successful. He described Vojtěch as "the best minister and a decent guy.”

Yet when asked whether he intends to persuade Vojtěch to remain at the head of the ministry in the next government, the Prime Minister answered in the negative. 

"Adam Vojtěch has been approved as ambassador to Finland, and he should leave for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 1," Babiš said.

"Of course, if we are in government after the election, then we want to have the Ministry of Health," Babiš also said. He justified ANO’s interest in continuing to take charge at the Ministry with reference to its steps to implement a new cancer prevention program.

Vojtěch has been the longest serving Czech Minister of Health since 1993. In December 2017, he was appointed as Health Minister in Babiš’s first cabinet. He received the same position in Babiš's second cabinet, appointed in June 2018.

Vojtěch managed the ministry in the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, but resigned last September, apparently due to becoming disproportionately burdened with the office's management during the first wave of the virus. After leaving government, he was elected a member of the Board of the Regional Health Authority, which manages five regional hospitals in the Ústí nad Labem Region. 

At the end of May this year, he returned to the head of the Health Ministry. Babiš then declared that he hoped Vojtěch would lead the Ministry until the October general elections.