Daily: Žák to serve as advisor to president

The former transport minister in the previous government, Zdeněk Žák, has been named as an advisor to Czech President Miloš Zeman in the area of transport, Czech daily Mladá fronta Dnes reports. He joins five others who held ministerial posts in the short-lived government, which was hand-picked by Mr Zeman but never received backing in Parliament’s lower house. Dnes writes that while Žák, like the other advisors, will not be paid in the role of advisor, he could nevertheless have access to non-public information and important contacts. In the last general election, Mr Žák headed the Prague candidate’s list for the Citizens’ Rights - Zemanites Party; the Zemanites were badly defeated, getting only 1.5 percent of the vote, well below the five percent needed.