Prague - Czech President Milos Zeman refused to appoint literary historian Martin Putna university professor last week, creating a huge controversy. Zeman said he would not specify the reason of his decision in order not to "humiliate Mr Putna". After meeting with Education Minister Petr Fiala, Zeman said today he will appoint Putna professor, but will not let him attend the official ceremony and will not hand him the diploma personally.
What was it all about?
Many in the media and the public interpreted Zeman's (in)action as an attack against academic freedom. In response, the Education Ministry has suggested to strip the president of his power to appoint professors, which is included in the law on universities. The government is expected to discuss the amended law in May or June. Moreover, student activists have asked other senior academics to refuse to accept the appointment from Zeman. Some of them indeed considered boycotting the formal appointment ceremony in a protest against Zeman's refusal to appoint Putna.
Some say though that Zeman was rather motivated by revenge, because Putna had mocked him in a video he had posted on YouTube before the January 2013 presidential election and had endorsed his opponent, current Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
And the issue is further complicated by Putna's homosexual orientation, which some say was behind Zeman's initial refusal to appoint him. Putna had attended a Gay Pride march in Prague in 2011 with a sign that said "Catholic queers salute Batora". The march had taken place amid a controversy over then-Education Minister Josef Dobes's adviser Ladislav Batora, accused by some politicians and activists of holding extreme right-wing views. Zeman said in an interview with state Czech Television that he had not liked Putna's sign.
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But there is also another, more down-to-earth interpretation. The scandal had actually nothing to do with academic freedom, Putna's gay orientation or the president's hurt ego. Rather, Zeman simply used the issue to "test the waters", to see how far he could stretch his powers. His two predecessors, Vaclav Havel (in office between 1993 and 2003) and Vaclav Klaus (2003-2013), never refused to appoint a professor.
