Zeman's team prepares his inauguration

Prague, Feb 13 (CTK) - The team of Czech president-elect Milos Zeman and representatives of Prague Castle, the presidential seat, were discussing his inauguration on March 8 and the assumption of the presidential office yesterday, according to CTK information.

The inauguration details are to be released next week when Zeman returns to Prague from his country seat in the Vysocina Highlands.

The Government Office has probably also participated in some talks on the steps connected with the departure of President Vaclav Klaus and Zeman's assumption of office.

The Government Office is to prepare the new president's welcome after his inauguration, for example.

Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) said after a recent meeting with Zeman that he would consider it "natural" if the new president attended the first government meeting after his inauguration.

Besides, Klaus's visit to a government meeting is being prepared shortly before he ends in office, possibly on March 6, according to CTK unofficial information.

Klaus's term in office expires on March 7 and his successor Zeman will be sworn-in a day later.

Zeman's inauguration is to be more or less the same like five years ago after Klaus's re-election. However, the programme should offer several new points that have been kept secret so far, according to CTK information.

Apart from the presidential oath and first address, a military parade is to accompany Zeman's inauguration.

Zeman will also pay homage to first Czechoslovak president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (in office 1918-35), laying a wreath at his statue outside Prague Castle.

Zeman will take his presidential oath at a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, the lower and upper houses of the Czech parliament, to be traditionally held in Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle.

Some 500 guests are expected to attend the ceremony, including Klaus,as well as representatives of state administration and diplomatic corps.

A military parade of an honorary unit at the castle's third courtyard will follow as the president is the supreme commander of armed forces.

A short divine service will be celebrated in St Vitus Cathedral. Zeman is also expected to pay homage to the Czech patron saint, St Wenceslas, at his tomb in the cathedral's chapel, which Klaus did after his inauguration for the second five-year term in March 2008.

Former socialist prime minister Milos Zeman, 68, now honorary chairman of the Party of Citizens' Rights (SPOZ), won the January 25-26 presidential run-off with 54.8 percent of the vote, having defeated Foreign Minister and government TOP 09 chairman Karel Schwarzenberg, 75.

When Klaus was sworn-in in 2008, the parliamentary session ended after his address. Then a military parade took place at the third courtyard.

Soldiers in period uniforms evoking the traditions of Czechoslovak legionaries, the first Czechoslovak Republic and WWII also took part in the show and historical military banners were used unlike in all previous parades since the fall of the communist regime in November 1989, historian Robert Spejchal, from the Military History Institute, said.

Klaus then laid flowers to the St Wenceslas tomb. His inauguration culminated in the Spanish Hall at Prague Castle where hundreds of guests could congratulate him on the inauguration.