Prague, Oct 24 (CTK) – Awarding the Holocaust survivor, Jiri Brady, uncle of Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL), would calm down the situation around the national holiday on October 28, Deputy PM and KDU-CSL chairman Pavel Belobradek tweeted yesterday.
Brady, 88, deserves a state order, he added.
Herman says President Milos Zeman deleted the name of his uncle from the list of the personalities to be awarded on October 28 because of Herman’s meeting with the Tibetan Dalai Lama last Tuesday.
“The situation around October 28 would calm down if the president decided to give the T. G. Masaryk Order to Jiri Brady. He deserves it. Promises should be fulfilled,” Belobradek tweeted.
Brady said on his arrival in Prague on Sunday that the Presidential Office had announced to him by phone on October 12 that he would be presented with the T.G.Masaryk Order.
However, the list of people to be awarded, which Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) received from the Presidential Office for countersignature one day after Herman’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, did not contain Brady’s name.
Herman says Zeman threatened him with not awarding Brady if he met the Dalai Lama.
Zeman criticised Herman’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying it harmed Czech-Chinese relations.
Deputy Miroslava Nemcova (opposition Civic Democrats, ODS) called the reasons for deleting Brady from the list of the award laureates contemptible in her press release.
She said the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, should redress “this unfortunate shame.”
“This si why I called on the Chamber of Deputies leadership and all MPs to honour Jiri Brady at a special session. It was us, the MPs, who approved the proposal for bestowing the T.G.Masaryk Order on Jiri Brady”, Nemcova said.
If the lower house does not organise a meeting with Brady, Nemcova proposes that at least the deputies with a similar opinion as she should meet him.
“He must know that his native country respects him,” she said.
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