PRAGUE, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Czech President Milos Zeman appointed Tomas Petricek as the new foreign minister on Tuesday, filling the diplomacy position in the minority coalition government of Prime Minister Andrej Babis three and a half months after it was appointed.
Prior to Petricek's appointment, Social Democratic (CSSD) chairman, deputy PM and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek had to head the foreign ministry temporiarily after Zeman refused to appoint the CSSD's original nominee, Miroslav Poche, to the post in June.
Zeman said he would not appoint Poche because of his pro-migration stances and his position on Israel as well as his previous work in Prague politics, among other reasons.
Poche currently works at the foreign ministry as a political secretary, but Zeman made Petricek's appointment conditional on Poche's departure from his current post.
The 37-year-old Petricek has worked at the foreign ministry since August when he became deputy foreign minister. He was Poche's assistant in the European Parliament since 2014.
After the appointment, Zeman said he hopes to cooperate with Petricek and that Czech diplomacy will be unified. "If we are speaking in different voices, no one will take us seriously," Zeman was quoted as saying.
The appointment of Petricek resolved "the petty problem" that had burdened the political scene in the country of late, said Zeman.
The appointment of Petricek is the third personnel change since the appointment of Babis' government in June. Former justice minister Tatana Mala and former labor and social affairs minister Petr Krcal stepped down in July over plagiarism of their university thesis.
