Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes still seeking new director

The executive council of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes is to meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss controversy surrounding the election of its new director. The council had chosen historian Jiří Pernes to take up the post in mid-February after the former director Pavel Záček had been voted out of office for poor management. After his election, it emerged that Mr. Pernes took evening classes at a Marxist-Leninist institute of higher learning and that the StB, the Czech communist-era secret police, had considered him a potential candidate for collaboration. The news evoked a storm of controversy and the Social Democrats have accused the former director Pavel Záček of using the institute to glean information that could damage his successor.

Author: Sarah Borufka