President Klaus approves agriculture Minister Šebesta to head Environment Ministry

Czech President Václav Klaus on Monday approved agriculture minister Jakub Šebesta taking over the vacant post of environment minister in the caretaker government. Prime Minister Jan Fischer said Mr Šebesta had the skills to handle two ministries until the cabinet’s mandate comes to an end after general elections in May. Mr Fischer said he wanted to fill the post quickly so as to avoid a political wrangle in the pre-election period. Former environment minister Jan Dusík quit as environment minister last week in a row over the modernisation of a controversial power plant. He said the prime minister wanted an immediate decision over whether to give the go-ahead for modernisation of the Prunéřov II plant but he wanted to negotiate environment and efficiency improvements to make it less polluting.

Author: Chris Johnstone