PM rejects human rights and minorities minister’s offer of resignation

The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, has rejected an offer by the minister for human rights and minorities to resign, after discussing the possibility face-to-face late Wednesday. The human rights minister, Michael Kocáb, handed over a letter of resignation after a Czech tabloid published allegations he had been having an affair with his spokeswoman, Lejla Abbas. She has already stepped down from her post. A government spokesman said that the prime minister valued Mr Kocáb’s attempt to deal with the situation fairly, but that he had made clear there was no reason for him to resign at this time.

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, he headed the government commission in the early 1990s that oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia following the fall of communism.