Czech PM hoped to skip Mandela funeral

Outgoing Czech Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok has revealed he was hoping to avoid the funeral of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela next week, in comments he didn't realise were being recorded and then went viral.

Talking to Defence Minister Vlastimil Picek, his neighbour in parliament on Friday, Rusnok said "I hope the president will go instead. The idea of going gives me the shivers".

The private chat was captured by parliament microphones, then broadcast by the public Czech Television at night before going viral on the web on Saturday.

"I have a lunch scheduled, and a dinner too, man, so I'm dreading having to go there. I don't feel like going at all," Rusnok said.

He added he hoped President Milos Zeman would go to the funeral, but the Czech Republic's first-ever directly elected 69-year-old head of state is recovering from a knee injury and his participation is doubtful.

"Can you tell me how he will climb the stairs to the plane?" Picek asked Rusnok.

The prime minister, who had sent condolences to South Africa earlier expressing "profound grief" over Mandela's death, called the trip "one hell of a distance" before conceding: "I guess he (Zeman) won't fly so I'm f***ed."

Rusnok apologised for his words later on Saturday in a short message sent to Czech media saying "it was not correct to say that".

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