Prague, Oct 17 (CTK) – The Czech Presidential Office has given up its effort to push through its former official Jindrich Forejt to the seat of the ambassador to the Vatican, thereby closing a long dispute that has been blocking the replacement of the current ambassador, Pavel Vosalik, Lidove noviny (LN) said on Tuesday.
Vosalik is a genuine veteran among Czech diplomats abroad. Two weeks ago, his tenth year in the Vatican started, exceeding the standard four-year term of an ambassador by six years, LN writes.
Nevertheless, he is sure of being finally replaced by next summer now that the Presidential Office has withdrawn the nomination of its former Protocol section chief Forejt after a five-year dispute over the post, the daily writes.
Forejt’s nomination was promoted as optimal by President Milos Zeman and his predecessor Vaclav Klaus.
According to LN’s sources, the new ambassador will be Vaclav Kolaja, the current “political” deputy foreign minister for the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
This means that the Prague Castle has given up its long-lasting promotion of Forejt.
Media started mentioning the possible ambassadorial nomination of Forejt in 2013, when, however, outgoing President Klaus persuaded him to stay working for Zeman, the new president. Zeman later said he had no replacement for as loyal Protocol chief as Forejt, which is why he would not send him to the Vatican.
In late 2016, Forejt was forced to quit as the presidential Protocol head due to a video allegedly showing him taking drugs.
President Zeman continued protecting him. “Since he did a lot of useful work, my personal wish is that he become the ambassador to the Vatican,” Zeman said about Forejt last December.
This February, Forejt started to work as a Protocol official in the Vaclav Klaus Institute.
Although he withdrew from media limelight and the Vatican sources made it clear that Forejt, with his extempore, has no chance to be accepted as an ambassador, Zeman kept promoting his nomination, the daily writes.
A few weeks ago, Zeman told the Foreign Ministry that he does not insist on Forejt’s nomination any more, and the ministry started to prepare the necessary documents for Vosalik’s replacement, LN writes.
The ministry would not disclose new ambassadors’ names before they receive the host country’s agrement.
However, LN’s sources said the Czech cabinet has approved the nomination of Kolaja.
This is logical because Kolaja is a Christian Democrat and has already served as a diplomat abroad, unlike Forejt, LN writes.
Being the Foreign Ministry’s employee for 20 years, Kolaja has worked not only at its Prague headquarters but also at the embassies in London, Brussels and Washington, it writes.
It says another deputy foreign minister, Ivana Cervenkova, is to become the first ever female Czech ambassador to Austria after the post was vacated by Jan Sechter this summer.
Before, this post was held by Slovak-born Magda Vasaryova at the end of the Czechoslovak federation era in 1990-1993, LN writes.
