Prague, Aug 10 (CTK) – A number of former Czech senior officials, such as the wife of former president Vaclav Klaus, Livia Klausova, and police president Petr Lessy, have received jobs at the embassy in Bratislava and they are to be joined by the new “firefighting attache,” daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes today.
The Czech embassy in Bratislava will establish a brand-new, rather unusual post, the firefighting attache, LN writes.
The appointment will be made by Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) as firefighters fall within the remit of his office.
The information was confirmed by the spokeswoman for the Firefighting Authority, Nicole Zaoralova.
“The establishment of such a post is being planned. This is a reciprocal step as Slovakia is about to open the same position in Prague,” Zaoralova said.
“We mainly want to have quality communication and organisation of joint interventions. In the long run, we want to achieve joint training and education,” she added.
The official, to be sent by the firefighting authority, will receive a number of benefits from the Foreign Ministry such as immunity from prosecution and VAT relief, LN writes.
It is not yet clear who will fill the post, it adds.
LN writes that the post with the diplomatic cover is prepared as a “job for retirement” for some senior firefighting officials with the rank of general.
The Czech Republic has nine of them, it adds.
The Foreign Ministry is not the only office that appoints its representatives at embassies.
The Defence Ministry sends military attaches who work in some 30 countries. Among the military diplomats, too, one can find the people who received their jobs as veteran senior officials, LN writes.
Bratislava is no exception, LN writes, citing the example of Zdenek Jaburek, who worked as the military commander of the Prague Castle, the seat of the Presidential Office.
When President Milos Zeman dismissed him in January 2015, the job in Bratislava was already promised to him, LN writes.
Lessy has have been working as an envoy of the Interior Ministry in the post of police attache in Bratislava since 2014.
He gained it on the basis of an agreement with Chovanec to whom he promised to leave the post of police president to his successor Tomas Tuhy.
Lessy became not only the police attache, but also the first secretary, LN writes.
Bratislava is attractive also due to the closeness of Prague.
“For those leaving their family in the Czech Republic, this is an ideal posting since one can spend prolonged weekends at home,” LN quotes a Czech diplomatic source.
There is one more reason. “Not everyone is able to use foreign languages quite fluently and without errors. In Bratislava, this does not pose any problems because one can make easily do with Czech,” the source said.
Czech and Slovak are very similar languages.
