Senators reject Zeman nominee Srp for Institute board

The Senate has rejected the nomination of Karel Srp as a member of the board of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. The vote followed a recommendation from the Senate’s electoral commission, which said that as a former member of the Communist Party he did not fulfill the conditions to serve on the board.

Mr. Srp, who was nominated by President Miloš Zeman, said last week that he could not recall whether he had been in the Communist Party in the Prague Spring period 50 years ago. In the 1980s he headed Jazz Section, a music-focused group permitted by the Communists that also supported underground activities.

The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes oversees Communist-era secret police files and conducts research into modern Czech history.

Author: Ian Willoughby