Human rights minister offers to resign after tabloid allegations of affair with spokeswoman

The minister for human rights and minorities, Michael Kocáb, has offered to resign from the caretaker Czech government following allegations about his private life. Mr Kocáb handed a letter of resignation to Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Wednesday, hours after a tabloid newspaper reported that the minister was having an affair with his spokeswoman. However, Mr Fischer said he was not at the present time minded to accept the resignation; he said he wanted to speak to Mr Kocáb personally about the matter.

Michael Kocáb, who was nominated to the cabinet by the Green Party, also served as human rights minister in the previous Czech government. A rock musician by profession, in the early 1990s he headed the government commission that oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia following the fall of communism.

Author: Ian Willoughby