Senate calls for legal analysis on head of Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes

The Czech Senate has called on the council for the country’s Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes to commission independent legal analysis regarding the institute’s director Jiří Pernes. The new head has been the subject of continued controversy after it emerged that he had withheld key information when applying for the post - the fact that under Communism he attended evening classes at the communist academy of Marxism and Leninism. He was also reportedly eyed as a potential collaborator by the Communist-era secret police, the StB. His naming has drawn protests both on the board, as well as among some Institute employees. The Senate, despite opposition by the leftist parties as well as the centrist Christian Democrats, wants the analysis to re-examine Mr Pernes’s suitability for the post.