Prague - Czech President Milos Zeman will name Social Democrat (CSSD) chairman Bohuslav Sobotka new prime minister on Friday, January 17.
It will be up to the new prime minister to pick his ministers, said Zeman, who nonetheless expressed objections to some candidates, even though he did not name them.
Zeman said that "a minister who knows nothing about his department should not be a minister." This was possibly a reference to Martin Stropnicky, a former actor and diplomat who has been nominated by ANO 2011 to serve as defense minister.
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Zeman complained that one candidate for minister had previously failed to get a security clearance, a clear reference to Jan Mladek, nominated by the Social Democrats for industry minister. The president also criticized the fact that Milan Chovanec, a Social Democrat candidate for interior minister, graduated from the controversial law faculty at the University of Western Bohemia in Plzen.
It has been previously reported that the president also has a problem with Jiri Dienstbier and Lubomir Zaoralek, nominated by the Social Democrats for government legislative council head and foreign minister, respectively, and with Marian Jurecka, nominated by the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) for agriculture minister.
Zeman said today that he wanted to meet with all candidates for ministers before the end of January to hear their plans to handle their departments.
On January 17 it will be 83 days since the late-October general election. This means that it will be the longest period in Czech history between a general election and a new prime minister being appointed.
