Petranský elected new head of Nation's Memory Institute

IVAN Petranský was elected the new head of the Nation's Memory Institute (ÚPN) yesterday by parliament more than six months after the previous chairman, Ján Langoš, died in a car crash.

The 31-year old Petranský was nominated to the post by the ruling Slovak National Party (SNS), and received 80 votes from MPs in a secret ballot.

The ÚPN collects, archives, and publishes information concerning both the 1948-1989 communist regime and the 1938-1945 wartime Slovak Nazi-puppet state.

Given the sympathies of the SNS for the fascist state, it is feared that Petranský will not be balanced in the attention he gives both regimes. However, he said after his election that he views the ÚPN as an important institution whose independence he would try to protect.

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