Schwarzenberg says Fischer lacks experience for diplomatic post

Prague, Feb 27 (CTK) - Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) is strongly against former interim government head Jan Fischer (unaffiliated) being appointed an ambassador, he told yesterday's issue of daily Lidove noviny (LN).

Fischer, a favourite of the recent direct presidential election who nevertheless failed to advance to the runoff election, said earlier he might become a diplomat.

If Fischer were proposed by president-elect Milos Zeman for the head of some Czech foreign diplomatic mission, Schwarzenberg said he would reject the proposal.

The paper writes Fischer might be appointed an ambassador to Israel, for example.

Fischer was an interim cabinet head in 2009-10. Before entering politics he headed the Czech Statistical Office. Last year he left the post of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) vice-president because of the Czech presidential contest. He is of Jewish origin.

Schwarzenberg himself ran for president. He lost to Zeman in the runoff election.

"I resolutely oppose the idea that ambassadorial posts be used as compensation for failed or redundant politicians," Schwarzenberg told LN.

He said diplomatic posts should be occupied by professionals.

Only a few persons can cope with an ambassadorial post well without previously working in diplomacy, Schwarzenberg told the paper.

Schwarzenberg and Zeman have recently talked about vacant diplomatic positions.

Schwarzenberg said he can imagine MEP Vladimir Remek (Communists, KSCM) as Czech ambassador to Moscow.

Remek has been the only Czech cosmonaut. He was launched into space in 1978 as the first person who was not a Soviet or U.S. citizen.

If Schwarzenberg and Zeman clashed over the naming of some diplomats, some Czech diplomatic missions might temporarily be without their proper heads.

The paper recalls that some Czech ambassadorial posts were vacant for some time due to recent disputes between the Foreign Ministry and outgoing President Vaclav Klaus. The diplomatic war lasted several months.

Schwarzenberg finally gave in and even nodded to the nomination of Klaus's cooperator Jindrich Forejt, from the Presidential Office, to the post of ambassador to the Vatican, LN writes.

Forejt will nevertheless stay in Prague and work for Zeman after his presidential inauguration.

Schwarzenberg allegedly accepted Forejt's nomination in exchange for Klaus's signature under a key package of tax laws that the coalition government pushed through parliament late last year, the paper says.

Schwarzenberg indicated that he and Klaus made some kind of deal concerning the names of new ambassadors, it writes.