Regional branch of Social Democrats defends Governor Hasek's position

The South Moravian branch of the Social Democrats has upheld Governor Michal Hašek’s position at the head of the party’s election ticket for the autumn regional elections. The governor’s position has been undermined in recent days by revelations that his press releases were written by a lobbyist working under a fictitious name. Hašek’s office is also said to have paid the woman 400,000 a year to write laudatory articles about him for the news sites parlamentnilisty.cz and krajskelisty.cz. The governor, who went before the party’s regional committee to explain the matter on Tuesday, said his office had never signed a contract with the said lobbyist, she merely worked for the PR agency with whom his office had a contract. The woman in question was found guilty of attempting to bribe journalists earlier this year. There have been calls for the governor to resign in the wake of the scandal.