Greece recalls ambassador to Czech Republic after country president’s Grexit comments

Greece recalled its ambassador to the Czech Republic on Tuesday, following a decision by the Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias who was responding to derogatory comments made by the country’s President Miloš Zeman against Greece.

The Greek ambassador, Panagiotis Sarri, will participate on deliberations on the issue in Athens.

The latest incident concerned statements made by Zeman to Slovak news agency TASR last week, in which he was reported as saying that the Czech Republic should introduce the euro on the first day after Greece´s departure from the euro zone and added: “My only apprehension about the adoption of the euro amid the present stabilisation mechanism is that Czech taxpayers would have to cover the Greek debts. I was very disappointed by the outcome of the [summer] negotiations that were close to ´Grexit´ but finally resulted in Greece´s remaining in the euro zone.”

The foreign ministry is also irked by a series of hostile statements towards Greece which started last summer and continued until last week with no sign of abating and despite the moderate response by the ministry’s spokesman, Konstantinos Koutras.

Responding recently to these comments, Koutras had reminded that “the Czech Republic is a member-state of the EU thanks to Greece. No further comment for now.” 

The ministry believes that recalling the Greek ambassador will send a clear signal towards Zeman, the Czech Republic, as well as other country leaders who often attack Greece with derogatory statements.