Czech President Zeman appoints Petricek as FM after months’ delay over migration

The Czech Republic’s center-left government on Tuesday put a full-time foreign minister in place after a dispute over migration delayed an appointment for months. President Milos Zeman appointed Tomas Petricek to the post, which was previously held by the chairman of the Social Democrats, who was also the interior minister. Petricek, 37, was also the nominee of the Social Democrats, the coalition government’s junior partner. Zeman refused to swear in the original candidate for FM, European Parliament member Miroslav Poche. Poche supported an EU plan that would require the Czech Republic to accept some refugees, while the president and prime minister opposed it, AP said. Petricek, a former assistant to Poche, prefers to help the refugees outside the EU.