The Czech president, Milos Zeman, has been released from a Prague hospital after being treated for an acute infection and urinary tract infection following a mild form of pneumonia, his office said on Wednesday.
After recovering and resting, Mr. Zeman arrived home on Wednesday night. He will return to work when his doctor tells him it is safe to do so, his office said.
The Czech leader had been admitted to hospital over the weekend after suffering from symptoms of heart and kidney failure, according to the Czech press. He also fell at the presidential palace on June 14, suffering a broken collarbone, from which he has since recovered.
“The president has in the last month suffered acute low blood pressure and acute high blood pressure,” the president’s office said on Tuesday.
According to Reuters, the president’s doctor, Jan Jirankov, told reporters on Tuesday, “This is not about heart disease, it’s about the kidney’s function. … There is no unexpected news.”
Mr. Zeman’s hospitalization has become a rare occurrence in the country and has prompted ridicule and headlines elsewhere.
The Czech Republic’s health and media watchdog were also subjected to a wave of satirical criticism on Wednesday after news broke that the president has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the corruption case against the businessman Vlastimil Jiracek, a close friend of Mr. Zeman.
According to the state-run Prague Broadcasting Network, the president was found innocent, echoing a claim made in a statement by the justice minister, Robert Pelikan, the previous day.
The story began when the Prague Broadcasting Network’s Czech news channel Znak broadcast a report claiming that Mr. Zeman had received campaign donations in 2013 from Mr. Jiracek, a businessman who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Prague.
In response, several local news outlets reported that Czech prosecutors have interviewed Mr. Zeman in the Jiracek case and questioned the president about where the money came from. Mr. Zeman, a known meddler in the affairs of his nation, has staunchly denied that he has done anything wrong, and one of his supporters, Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who is embroiled in his own ongoing corruption scandal, called the arrest a “witch hunt.”
Several observers pointed out that media scrutiny of Mr. Zeman, who has been labeled a hothead by the country’s press, is easy for the country to go after since he is a national leader who lacks political opponents.
However, the results of the probe could prove politically consequential as Mr. Zeman faces increased pressure to resign from Prime Minister Babis, whose Liberal Party heads a minority government that does not have a majority in the country’s lower house of parliament.
Since taking office in 2014, Mr. Zeman has become a popular figure in the country, and his recent weeks’ hospitalization have attracted considerably more attention than the short period of his presidency that followed it.
In fact, he was an institution by 2015, having won his second consecutive five-year term in an election that was widely regarded as undemocratic due to the widespread abstention of voters, many of whom accused the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, of having rigged the polls. Mr. Zeman’s announcement of his intention to seek reelection in 2019 reportedly provoked the surprise resignation of his chief of staff.
An appearance on a television show recently in which he attempted to defend his failure to attend a debate organized by the liberal newspaper Noviny and TV channel CTK brought him even more attention. In one segment, he accused the journalists of racism, threatening to “deliver” them if he missed the debate and suggesting that they were all part of a plot against him.
Czech government officials denounced Mr. Zeman’s remarks.
He has served as president since 2013. However, the country’s constitution prevents him from running again until 2028.
Read the full story on CNN.
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