LÍVIA Klausová, wife of former Czech President Václav Klaus, has become new Czech ambassador to Slovakia after she received agreement from the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The government of Jiří Rusnok appointed Klausová, who is of Slovak origin, to the post on July 31, but it had to wait for official confirmation from Bratislava. Currently she still is in Prague preparing for her diplomatic post, the TASR newswire reported.
Several Slovak politicians welcomed Klausová’s appointment. Prime Minister Robert Fico commented that her nomination expresses the above-standard relation between the two neighbouring countries, while Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák called it a positive symbolism.
“From my point of view, it means that there is a special level in quality of relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” Lajčák said, as quoted by TASR.
The appointment of Klausová resulted in a political dispute in the Czech Republic. Then Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg refused the proposal of Czech President Miloš Zeman to send her to Slovakia. He said that the ambassador to Slovakia should be a career diplomat, the Sme daily reported.
Zeman started to support Klausová after she backed him during the presidential elections. She, for example, criticised Schwarzenberg, Zeman’s opponent in the election’s runoff round, saying that his wife cannot speak Czech, according to Sme.
Klausová was then appointed by Rusnok’s caretaker government.
Source: TASR, Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
