Prague, Feb 9 (CTK) – Czech presidential candidate Michal Horacek, 64, lyricist and former businessman, yesterday presented his advisers in the campaign, including Slovak diplomat, politician and former actress Magda Vasaryova, State Office for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) head Dana Drabova and lawyer Karel Elias.
Horacek said if he succeeded in the presidential election to be held at the begining of 2018, these people would become his advisers in the Presidential Office.
They will work in the presidential campaign election free of charge, he added.
Vasaryova occupied the post of Czechoslovak ambassador to Austria and Slovak ambassador to Poland and she unsuccessfully ran for Slovak president in 1999.
She will be Horacek’s adviser for Central European, EU and NATO affairs.
“It is very important to me as a Slovak citizen how the Czech Republic will look like in the future,” Vasaryova told the press conference.
Jiri Ovcacek, spokesman for President Milos Zeman, said advisors have as yet spoken on behalf of Horacek.
“Mr Horacek on principle does not say any opinions,” Ovcacek wrote to CTK.
He wrote that the public knows Vasaryova as a fanatical supporter of accepting migrants.
Drabova, for her part, is a link to the opposition Mayors and Independents (STAN), whose chairman Petr Gazdik helped Horacek launch his presidential campaign in the Old Town Square on the national holiday on October 28, 2016, Ovcacek wrote.
Zeman will publicly announce on March 10 whether he will seek re-election.
Cyclist Leopold Konias and former ice-hockey player Robert Reichel are also in the team of Horacek’s advisers.
Konig recently sharply criticised Deputy PM and Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) for his untaxed incomes from his Agrofert concern’s bonds and President Milos Zeman for dividing society.
Horacek said he had not taken such views into consideration when selecting his advisers.
Horacek, who announced his intention to run for president last November, called his group of advisers a significant part of his candidature.
“They share my vision and will help me implement it,” he said.
His advisers are not paid and they do not represent any institutions; there is no hierarchy in the team, he added.
Apart from the above mentioned personalities, Alena Jancikova, director of the Czech Association of Paraplegics, philosopher Miroslav Petricek, hospice director Monika Markova, surgeon Pavel Pafko, businessman Michal Blaha, Science Academy employee Ondrej Cisar and writer Milos Urban are in his team.
Horacek said he might invite another two or three people to the team.
Current President Milos Zeman, 72 was elected head of state in the first direct presidential election in the country in January 2013 and inaugurated in March. His five-year term in office expires in March 2018.
He is to announce whether he will be defending his presidency on March 9.
hol/dr/rtj
