After the scandal which erupted earlier this month, Roman Prymula was removed from the position of the Minister of Health. On Thursday, the new Minister of Health was appointed – it became Jan Blatný, the Deputy of the University Hospital in Brno.
After his night visit to a restaurant where he broke several of his own quarantine measures, Roman Prymula was asked to leave the office. Several days of speculations followed and some of the possible candidates for the now open position were Aleksi Šedo, the Deputy Minister of Health and Miroslav Ludvík, the ex-minister of Health and the director of the Motol hospital.
The position was given to Jan Blatný, who is a Consultant Haematologist at the Department of Paediatric Haematology and who has successfully run the well-recognized University Hospital in Brno. According to Vinegret.cz, Andrej Babiš, the Prime Minister, proposed Blatný as a candidate to the president.
On Thursday, Blatný visited the chateau in Lány where he got officially appointed by the president, Miloš Zeman. He was then taken to the Ministry of Health where Andrej Babiš acquainted him with the office.
“Politics is an extremely cruel affair, and a politician who is a minister is exposed to attacks that a scientist cannot even imagine. I told you that you are moving from the park to the jungle, I admire your courage and I appreciate it,” Zeman commented about Blatný’s appointment, Novinky.cz reports.
At the end of the meeting, Zeman also suggested Blatný to avoid Vyšehrad, where Prymula was photographed violating the rules.
