Czech President Milos Zeman has thrown his support behind a bid by Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of US President-elect Donald Trump, to become the next ambassador to the country of her birth.
“They could not send a better US ambassador to Prague,” Zeman told her in a telephone call on Wednesday, the president’s office said in a statement.
Ivana Trump told the New York Post last week she would suggest to her ex-husband that she become ambassador to the Czech Republic.
The 67-year-old socialite, born in Zlin in what was then Czechoslovakia, told the paper the country was “where I’m from and my language and everybody knows me”.
Her suggestion, reported by Czech media over the weekend, has been welcomed by other politicians but most enthusiastically by the president’s office, whose spokesman said on Twitter it was a great choice.
It was another sign of a sharp pro-American U-turn by the Czech presidential administration.
Zeman was one of the few European politicians who vocally backed Trump in his campaign for the US presidency.
After the real estate billionaire won the election in a surprise victory a week ago, Zeman held a rare press briefing in which said he was “very happy” with Trump’s victory and that the two shared opinions on immigration and terrorism. (Reuters)