Prague, Dec 13 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman signed the appointment decrees of 52 university professors, his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek told CTK on Wednesday.
The decrees will be handed to them by new Education Minister Robert Plaga (ANO).
Among the newly appointed university professors, there are seven women, including documentary film director Helena Trestikova.
According to CTK information sources, the cabinet recommended Zeman to appoint 52 professors, hence he did not remove any candidate from the list of nominees, which he did previously.
Charles University nominated most candidates, mainly in technical fields, medicine and chemistry.
The professors’ appointment has been closely followed since 2013, when Zeman was refusing for a long time to appoint literary historian Martin C. Putna professor, arguing his behaviour in public was inappropriate.
In 2015, Zeman did not sign the appointment decrees of three proposed professors, two from the Charles University and one from the University of Economics (VSE). Those were Ivan Ostadal, in whose case Zeman pointed to his alleged contacts with the former communist secret police (StB), Jiri Fajt, director of the National Gallery, and political scientist Jan Eichler, from the VSE.
All three men filed suits on account of the president’s refusal and Eichler later withdrew it. Fajt filed a complaint with the Constitutionsal Court, Ostadal failed with his complaint at the same court and later withdrew his original complaint with Prague’s Municipal Court.
The Supreme Administrative Court is yet to deal with Ostadal’s complaint.
Since then, Zeman has approved three subsequent lists of professors without any objections.
