On 8 March 2018, he took an oath before the joint meeting of both chambers of the Czech Republic’s Parliament at the Vladislav Hall of the Prague Castle and he commenced his second five-year presidential term.

Czech President Miloš Zeman

The election encompassed two voting rounds; the first round was held on 12 and 13 January and the second on 26 and 27 January 2018. The presidential election took place also at 110 Czech diplomatic missions abroad. In the first round, a total of 12,483 votes were cast abroad and in the second round, 17,471 valid votes were cast. The winner of the election, President Miloš Zeman, won 51.36% of the votes in the second round, while his opponent, Professor Jiří Drahoš, a former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, received 48.63% of the votes cast.

Here is how many people voted abroad in both rounds (based on electoral participation):

London:             1620               2260

Munich:             586                 1243

Brussels:            1043               1107

Bern:                  535                 909

Bratislava:         419                 747

Vienna:              541                 701

Paris:                  499                 687
Berlin:                456                 550

Düsseldorf:       238                 392

New York:          213                 370

Sydney:              294                 328

Dresden:             213                 208

Toronto:             102                 141

 

 

70^th anniversary of Jan Masaryk’s death

Jan Masaryk (14 September 1886, Prague – 10 March 1948, Prague), the son of Czechoslovakia’s first President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, was a leading diplomat and politician during the first half of the 20^th century.

 

After the end of World War I, he became a Czechoslovak diplomat and in 1919, he was appointed chargé d'affaires to Washington D.C. From 1920 to 1925, Masaryk served as the personal secretary of Edvard Beneš, then Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia. In 1925, Masaryk was appointed Czechoslovak Ambassador to the UK. In September 1938 following the annexation of Sudetenland, he resigned from his post and remained in London. In 1940, he became the minister in the exile government under President Edvard Beneš.

As a minister, Masaryk led the Czechoslovak delegation at the Paris Peace Conference from July to October 1946. In August 1946, he he became the first President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) founded in Luxembourg.

Masaryk remained the Foreign Minister in the post-war government of the National Front – a government dominated largely by the Communists after the 1946 elections. During the February crisis, he refused to resign along with other non-communist members of Gottwald's government (for fear that the Foreign Minister post could be taken over by the Communists). On public, Masaryk’s work was constructive, he even made several statements supporting the government; however, in private, he stepped down from his seat and considered leaving for exile again.

In the morning of 10March 1948, Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk was found dead under the window of his official residence in Czernin Palace. The circumstances of his death remain unresolved until the present days.

 

Czech diplomacy in action…

Foreign Ministry at the Winter Olympics in Pyongyang

During this year's Winter Olympics, the Foreign Ministry established a temporary consular agency in Pyongyang covering the period from 7 to 27 February 2018. The agency provided consular assistance to Czech visitors to South Korea’s Pyongyang.

 

Foreign Ministry helps acquire the missing workforce

In order to meet the labour market needs and fill vacancies in the Czech Republic, two employment programs were approved by the Czech government in 2015 and 2016. The programs introduce a fast track recruitment procedure for giving Ukrainians work permits to come to the Czech Republic. At the same time, the programs prevent from filling up those jobs where the Czech Republic has enough of its staff or where there may be possible risks. In addition, the programs regulate economic migration flows in cases in which a long-term demand for employee cards exceeds the capacity of embassies and consulates to handle the applications.

Apart from 20,000 employee cards issued to Ukrainian workers per year, the Czech government approved further programs to attract employees from Mongolia and the Philippines (1,000 employee cards per year). The programs will be launched at respective embassies on 1 May 2018.

From the life of the consular community at home and abroad...

1) Opening new honorary consulates of the Czech Republic

1 January 2018 - Opening of the Honorary Consulate in Adelaide (Australia). The honorary consul heading this post is Mrs. Vera Marie Holt; the consulate covers the state of South Australia.

 

2) Appointment of an honorary consul general

14 February 2018 - The Czech Foreign Minister promoted the Honorary Consulate in Varna (Bulgaria) to Honorary Consulate General and appointed Mrs. Zdeňka Boevová as Honorary Consul General.

In 2005, Mrs. Zdeňka Boevová founded the Pospíšil Brothers Foundation which commemorates the legacy of the Czech compatriots who helped build the Bulgarian state. In 2005, she organized humanitarian aid from the Czech Republic in response to summer floods on the coast of Bulgaria. Also, she actively helped during massive flooding in the summer of 2014. On a long-term basis, Mrs. Boevová has assisted Czech tourists in distress within her consular district.