Prague, Dec 5 (CTK) – Jindrich Forejt, head of the Czech Presidential Office Protocol Department, may be fired in a few days’ time, the websites Neovlivni.cz, Echo24.cz and Blesk.cz write yesterday, referring to the speculations that started surfacing on Friday evening.
President Milos Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has declined to comment on the information, arguing that the news was only based on anonymous sources.
He has tweeted that he only comments on any changes at the moment they occur.
According to some sources, Forejt’s office was sealed.
Head of the Presidential Office Vratislav Mynar also told CTK the news is “just speculations.”
Blesk.cz said Forejt’s successor was already selected.
Forejt has not reacted to the requests for comment.
The Presidential Office Protocol Department was recently implicated in some disputable situations.
In mid-October, Zeman was late for the funeral of former Slovak president Michal Kovac, for which Forejt may have been blamed.
On November 11, Zeman apologised to U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic Andrew Schapiro for the information that Schapiro was absent from the October 28 national holiday celebration at Prague Castle.
The news was broken by the Protocol Department. It eventually turned out that Schapiro was at the ceremony.
Forejt also featured in the controversy over the decoration that was not given to Holocaust survivor Jiri Brady on October 28. While Brady says he was promised it, Forejt denied this.
Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) said Zeman told him he would not award his relative Brady with the Order of T.G. Masaryk on the national holiday if Herman met the Tibetan Dalai Lama.
Zeman denied the allegation.
Last September, the U.N. flag was hoisted in a room of the Presidential Office instead of the NATO flag during a visit by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Forejt is one of closest aides to Zeman who has repeatedly stood up on his behalf.
According to some information, Forejt has disputes with Mynar and Zeman’s chief aide Martin Nejedly.
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