WHEN the Czech President Milos Zeman formally appointed Petr Fiala as the country’s new prime minister Sunday, he did so sitting inside an acrylic glass box.

Zeman tested positive for the coronavirus earlier last week, and is currently recovering after a lengthy stay at a hospital for non-COVID related serious illness at the presidential retreat in Lany, west of the capital city of Prague.

Fiala, like everyone else at the ceremony, was wearing a respirator when he signed the official document in front of Zeman, who was sitting inside the box, which was constructed especially for the occasion.

Fiala will lead a five-party grouping of two centrist coalitions that won the parliamentary election last month.

Just a day after the election, the 77-year-old Zeman was rushed to hospital where he spent several weeks in intensive care for liver and other serious health problems.

One of the president’s main constitutional roles is to select the next prime minister to form a government, so Zeman’s hospitalization has left the country in a political deadlock.

Zeman was released from the hospital after 46 days Thursday morning only to be sent back later in the evening after testing positive for COVID-19.

He was released again Saturday but with the requirement that he remains in quarantine.

During the ceremony, Zeman and Fiala spoke to each other using microphones.

(SD-Agencies)