President Petr Pavel at the appointment of Petr Hladík from KDU-ČSL (not pictured) as Minister of the Environment, March 10, 2023, Prague. On the left is the head of the presidential office, Jana Vohralíková.
Prague – President Petr Pavel agrees to make his official portrait. His team will take care of the photography with its own production, Pavlov's spokeswoman Markéta Řeháková told journalists. Pavel started his first working day in the office of the President today. In addition to the appointment of Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL) as Minister of the Environment, he got to know the premises of Prague Castle, its employees and Lumbe's villa, where he could live during the week.
Advertisement'; }
Photo gallery: President Petr Pavel
“Mr. President has agreed that the official portrait will be taken,” said the spokeswoman. According to her, it will not be provided by ČTK as in the past. “It will be our own production. We don't have a date yet, the project is being prepared, but it will definitely be soon,” she added.
Pavel was initially not interested in official portraits or stamps with his likeness. But when he saw the anger it caused among the citizens, he decided to give it a “free course”.
On his first day in office, in addition to the appointment of Hladík, which took place at 09:00, Pavel inspected the offices at Prague Castle. He also looked at where he could live in the Castle. Pavel told Czech Television on Thursday that during the week he will stay in the Castle grounds, and on weekends, when he does not have work duties, he would like to go with his wife to their house in Černouček in Litoměřice. He does not want to live in the official apartment directly at the Castle. “That's really living in a castle, I can't quite imagine,” he said. According to Řehák, the move will only take place after a security check.
The most likely option for housing is the empire-style Lumbe villa near Jeléní príkop, where former president Václav Klaus and initially also Pavlo's predecessor Miloš Zeman lived. Today, the presidential couple visited the villa and some other places, such as the castle greenhouses. “Today we went to see Lumbe's villa and its surroundings for the first time. Eva liked the greenhouses where, in addition to beautiful flowers, fruits and vegetables, the staff also take care of domesticated cats. I was impressed by the land where I can imagine an ideal 'man cave' or boy's sewing shop,” Pavel said on Twitter in the evening.
Communist presidents used the so-called Domeček, i.e. a residence in the Royal Garden, for living. Ex-president Václav Havel lived there for several months. According to available information, Zeman's daughter Kateřina recently used the house, while Zeman's wife Ivana stayed in Lumbe's villa.
Pavel also got to know the employees of the Office of the President of the Republic today. He also planned a meeting with his team about the program for the next few days. He will consult with the team and his advisers over the weekend to develop a plan for his first 100 days in office, which he announced in his inaugural address. According to Řeháková, it will be published at the beginning of the week. Pavel will also talk to the team about fulfilling his priorities in the coming months and years.
On Monday he will leave for his first foreign trip to Slovakia, on Wednesday he will have a meeting with representatives of the opposition movement ANO to valorize pensions. After that, he will want to comment on his further course of action regarding this controversial law. He will visit Poland on Thursday and Friday, and a trip to Germany is also planned. According to Řeháková, the visit of a foreign statesman to the Czech Republic is not yet planned. He wants to discuss the details of his planned trip to Ukraine with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he will speak on the phone in the coming days.
Shortly after Pavlo's inauguration on Thursday, the website pages of the Castle, further changes in communication are on the way. The team of the new president refused to take over his Twitter account, which has over 100,000 followers, from the spokesperson of the president Zeman Jiří Ovčáček, Deník N reported today. Ovčáček had previously offered Pavlo's spokesman that he was ready to hand over the data and access to the profile to the new president's team. “We are not interested in handing over Jiří Ovčáček's account, because in the public's perception it is clearly connected to his person, the presidency of Miloš Zeman and his style of communication. We do not want to continue this era and we consider it important to clearly separate ourselves in terms of communication,” N Řeháková told Deník.
