Czech President rejects FM candidate over stance on"Israel"
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Czech President Milos Zeman is refusing to approve the incoming PM's pick for foreign minister while approving all other picks, citing the FM's stance on "Israel".
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Czech President Milos Zeman
Jan Lipavsky, incoming Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala's pick for foreign minister, was not approved by Czech President Milos Zeman over his stance on "Israel" and relations with the regional Visegrad regional group of countries.
Zeman said Friday he was ready to appoint all other picks, but his rejection of the foreign minister pick opens the door to a legal battle with the incoming center-right prime minister.
Fiala is backing Czech Pirate Party's Jan Lipavsky, as the party was part of Fiala's coalition, which won the October elections in the country.
"The Czech constitution does not oblige the president of the republic to accept every candidate that is submitted to him," Zeman said.
Zeman also says the foreign minister is underqualified for the foreign minister position, and although he has no executive authority, he is continually pressuring consecutive governments.
Lipavsky garnered in February 400 signatures from European legislators in objection to the Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
Lipavsky also opposes relocating the Czech embassy from "Tel Aviv" to occupied al-Quds, and it is one of Zeman's goals, which would put the Czech Republic under the same fire as the United States from the international community. So far, Prague has only a diplomatic mission in occupied al-Quds.
