Ex-Premier Fischer Selected as Czech Finance Minister

Czech Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok chose former technocrat Premier Jan Fischer as finance minister in his interim cabinet, handing this year’s presidential contender an economy mired in a record-long recession.

Fischer was also nominated to serve as deputy prime minister, Rusnok told reporters in Prague today. The 62-year-old graduate of Prague’s University of Economics in statistics and econometrics led a temporary cabinet for a year before 2010 general elections when the country suffered its deepest economic contraction.