Prime minister fires advisor over criticism of President Klaus

Prime Minister Petr Nečas has fired one of his advisors who insinuated that President Václav Klaus was a coward. Referring to Mr Klaus’s reflection of Friday’s incident when a disgruntled man fired plastic pellets at him, Mr Joch wrote on his blog the head of state was a “whining Kremlin-loving wimp”. Prime Minister Nečas distanced himself from Mr Joch’s words, and said all contracts between him and the government had been cancelled.

On Friday, President Klaus became a target of a communist sympathizer who fired plastic pellets at him from an air gun during a ceremony in the northern town of Chrastava. Mr Klaus said he considered the incident an unprecedented attack against the head of state which reflected the poor state of the society.