Prague, May 4 (CTK) – Czech Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) will end in the top politics and he will become the ambassador to Israel, the webpage Aktualne.cz said on Friday, referring to unnamed sources from the government and ANO.
President Milos Zeman recently spoke about Stropnicky’s return to diplomacy.
Aktualne.cz said Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s government had endorsed Stropnicky’s appointment as ambassador to Israel.
“Yes, he will be the ambassador to Israel. Stropnicky has decided himself, it was his decision that he no longer wants to be the minister,” Aktualne.cz quotes one of the government members as saying.
According to the government-forming talks between ANO and the Social Democrats, the latter party is to receive the seat of foreign minister in the government in the making.
Zeman spoke about Stropnicky’s plan on television last week.
“If I am well informed, Martin Stropnicky is interested in leaving the post. He would like to become the ambassador,” Zeman said.
“Since ambassadors are within the presidential powers, I presume that I will agree will this,” he added.
Aktualne.cz said Stropnicky was about to announce that he wanted to leave politics forever.
According to speculations, Stropnicky may be replaced with CSSD MEP Miroslav Poche.
The post of Czech ambassador to Israel has been held by Ivo Schwarz since 2014.
Stropnicky worked in the diplomatic sphere in the 1990s. He was the Czech ambassador to Portugal, Italy and the Vatican.
In the previous coalition government of the CSSD, ANO and Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) he was the defence minister.
