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The Czech health minister has come under fire after allegations that he had withheld information about supplementary income.
Petr Arenberger - who only took office on 7 April - has been asked to explain alleged substantial irregularities in his tax returns, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said.
National media have reported that Arenberger had declared significantly more assets and a higher income after joining the government than in previous years.
Before becoming a member of the Czech Cabinet, he was the director of the Vinohrady University Hospital in Prague.
Opposition politicians have now accused the health minister of renting an undeclared property to the university hospital before he was appointed.
Minister of Health Jan Blatný, was officially dismissed on Wednesday and replaced by Petr Arenberger, the current director of the Vinohrady University Hospital. Blatný was the third person to hold the post during the coronavirus pandemic.
Blatný was known to have had a strained relationship with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), who among other things, criticized him for the overly strict conditions for administering experimental drugs to treat Covid-19. At a press conference on Wednesday Blatný (independent) said he had a “clear conscience” that he had done the job well, calling his sacking “a political decision”.
When appointing Arenberger as the new health minister today, President Miloš Zeman blamed Blatný for the high coronavirus death rate, saying he should not have blocked deliveries of vaccines from Russia and China.