Prague - Czech President Milos Zeman has nominated Livia Klausova, the wife of his predecessor Vaclav Klaus, as the next ambassador to Slovakia, reported state Czech Television.
Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) is against the nomination. "I respect Mrs. Klausova very much, she represented our country in a brilliant way at her husband's side, but I have always maintained that an embassy must be headed by a professional who knows the diplomatic craft," Schwarzenberg told Aktualne.cz.
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Moreover, the Foreign Minister has already chosen his candidate for the Bratislava diplomatic post - Foreign Ministry senior official Jaromir Plisek.
Schwarzenberg is also not happy about the fact that Zeman has nominated Vladimir Remek, a former astronaut and current Communist Party (KSCM) member of the European Parliament, for the all-important post of ambassador to Moscow.
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Before the run-off presidential election in January, Livia Klausova endorsed Milos Zeman. Klausova said that as her husband's political opponent, Zeman had always kept his word, and that he had a "closer relation to the Czech Republic" than his opponent, current Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. Klausova also criticized Schwarzenberg's wife Therese for not speaking Czech.
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According to Marek Zenisek, a deputy chairman of Schwarzenberg's junior government TOP 09, Klausova's "xenophobic" statements made during the presidential campaign make her unacceptable for a diplomatic post. According to Zenisek, Klausova would also not be able to respect Foreign Minister Schwarzenberg as her superior.
