Press: Schools and state offices abandoning tradition of hanging presidential portrait

Many schools and government offices in the Czech Republic are abandoning the tradition of hanging a portrait of the head of state, Mladá fronta Dnes reported. The newspaper said many head teachers and state officials would not be ordering a portrait of Miloš Zeman, who becomes president in a month’s time. Hundreds of framed photographs of the outgoing president, Václav Klaus, were taken down recently in protest at an amnesty he declared at the start of the year. The tradition of placing portraits of the head of state in classrooms, mayor’s offices and other spaces – which is not enshrined in law – dates back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Author: Ian Willoughby