Confederation of Political Prisoners refuses to submit nominations for state awards

For the first time ever, the Confederation of Political Prisoners has not submitted a list of nominees for this year’s state awards, which are traditionally given out by the president on 28 October. The confederation’s vice chairman Leo Žídek said that they have a problem with the fact that President Miloš Zeman has not openly opposed the Communist regime. In the past, both of the previous Czech presidents Václav Havel and Václav Klaus gave state honors to a number of political prisoners of the former regime every year, usually based on the nominations from the confederation.