President not to deliver New Year’s address to the nation

President Milos Zeman will not be delivering a New Year’s address to the nation, his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek said on Thursday. He will instead address the nation on December 26th with a Christmas message. The tradition of New Years’ addresses started with the country’s first communist president Klement Gottwald in 1948. Presidents Tomas G. Masaryk and Edvard Benes delivered Christmas greetings.