President will appoint professors-in-waiting by end-March

President Miloš Zeman will appoint a new batch of professors, despite having expressed the desire to relinquish that prerogative and leave the task of appointing new professors to the education minister or speaker of the Senate, his spokesman Jiří Ovčáček told the ctk news agency. The lower house on Thursday rejected an amendment to the law which was drawn up in line with the president’s request. The matter became an issue shortly after the president’s inauguration when he refused to confer the title of professor upon literary historian Martin C. Putna citing the fact that Mr. Putna had carried a provocative sign in a Gay Pride parade. The number of professors-in-waiting has now grown to 85 and the president has promised to confer the title upon them by the end of March.