Ombudsman will not apologize for pregnancy comment

Ombudsman Otakar Motejl has said he would not apologize for implying that Petra Paroubková, wife of Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek, had timed her pregnancy to coincide with the country’s early general elections. In an interview for the daily Hospodarske Noviny Mr. Motejl said that politicical parties were primarily concered about their investment in the elelction campaign being squandered and that if elections did not take place this year Mrs. Paroubková would probably have to get pregnant again. The internet news site Novinky noted that the remark was in extremely poor taste, but Petra Paroubková is reported to have taken it with good humour saying that she was working hard to time her baby’s arrival but that that these last minute changes in the election date weren’t making it easy for her. Mr. Motejl said he had made the remark in jest.