President Milos Zeman addressed the nation tonight for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the Czech Republic. He released his first statement on the crisis “14 days ago”. His speech was broadcast at 19:25 on Thursday on commercial channel TV Prima. The head of state commented on the current situation in the fight against new coronavirus. The speech was pre-recorded at his residence in Lány on Wednesday. Photo: Zeman visiting Vysocina region in June, 2019. Credit: Hrad.cz.
Czech Republic, Mar 19 (BD) – Zeman warned against what he called the “two extremes”, of either failing to take the pandemic seriously or panicking, and called on the public to be courageous. He said he had discussed the situation with current and former Ministers of Health, and that they had cited the lack of medical supplies as the most urgent problem. In the same breath, he thanked China for making medical supplies available.
Zeman did not miss the chance to criticise opposition parties, telling them to support the government or “stay silent”. At the same time, he said that the public should listen to professionals rather than the media.
Zeman also thanked all the volunteers who had offered their help. In light of that, he suggested that actors complaining of a lack of work these days should use their time to visit old people’s homes to “bring them some joy”.
Zeman closed his statement after around ten minutes with the words “Farewell until better times”.
