Czech President May Resign

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31627, 13 March 1968, Page 15

Czech President May Resign

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PRAGUE, March 12.

President Antonin Navotny is reported by Communist Party sources to be considering resigning under strong pressure from the military and reformist elements in the party.

Although ousted from his position as First Secretary of the party last January by Mr Alexander Dubcek, the Czechoslovak President has striven in recent weeks to rally the forces which still support him. But party sources indicated that the defection to the West of Major-General Jan Sejna and the angry response to this from the military has forced the issue of the President’s resignation. General Sejna, who has sought asylum in the United States, is said to have been involved in mobilising an armoured unit to support President Novotny during the crucial party plenum last January at which he lost the party leadership. A meeting of the Czechoslovak Cabinet is due tomorrow, when the Defence Minister, Mr Bohumir Lomsky, and his aides will be called on to explain General Sejna’s defection.

General Sejna, once the most powerful political man in the Prague defence ministry, is said to have been a

friend of President Novotny and the President’s son. Czechoslovak observers feel the President’s political days are numbered, although he is still understood to have supporters in the trade unions, and the National Assembly, as well as the party.