News

PM Gross to meet President Klaus

The Prime Minister and newly elected head of the ruling Social Democrats, Stanislav Gross, is to meet President Vaclav Klaus on Tuesday, the spokesman for the presidential office Petr Hajek has said, adding that the meeting will take place at the request of the Prime Minister. Petr Hajek said he assumed that Prime Minister Gross would like to inform the President about the results of the weekend national congress of the Social Democrats at which Mr Gross was elected party chairman.

Coalition talks to resume on Tuesday

The leaders of the coalition parties are expected to resume talks on the government crisis on Tuesday at their regular meeting. It will be their first meeting since Stanislav Gross was elected Social Democrat chairman. Question marks are hanging over the future of the ruling coalition as the Christian Democrats have said repeatedly they may not stay in the coalition because of the controversies over the Prime Minister's private finances.

Kasal: Christian Democrats likely to convene national conference

The Christian Democrat deputy chairman Jan Kasal has said that following the Social Democrats' national congress at the weekend the Christian Democrats will probably have to convene their national conference which will decide on whether the party will leave the cabinet. Mr Kasal said that was very probable in view of the resolution which bans the Social Democrats from agreeing to early elections and since the Social Democrats have made it clear that Stanislav Gross will keep the post of Prime Minister. Mr Gross said in a televised debate on Monday that he did not intend to resign and did not plan to ask the lower house for confidence.

Gross: Social Democrats to propose special law if its referendum bill fails

Prime Minister Gross has said that if the Social Democrats fail to have the government-proposed general referendum bill approved in parliament, they will draft a special law on a one-off referendum on the European Constitution. This means that the Social Democrats will not take into account a referendum bill by proposed the opposition Civic Democrats, which was approved by the Senate last week.

Topolanek: Cesky Telecom should be sold on financial markets

The chairman of the opposition Civic Democrats Mirek Topolanek has said that the state-controlled landline operator Cesky Telecom should be privatised through stock-market floatation. According to Mr Topolanek the opposition has no influence on the methods of privatisation of Cesky Telecom. Prime Minister Gross said at the weekend that the government should decide on the sale of Cesky Telecom as soon as possible. Tuesday is the closing date for binding bids. Still taking part are the telecommunication companies Swisscom, Belgacom, and Telefonica of Spain, along with the financial consortium Blackstone/CVC/Provident, which has partnered with France Telecom.

Two die in ultralight plane accident

Two people, reportedly a couple from Prague, died in a crash of an ultralight plane near Rakovnik, in central Bohemia, on Sunday, local rescuers said. The plane crashed in a field. The victims are a 44-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man. Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

Weather

We can expect partly cloudy skies in the coming days with occasional rain and daytime temperatures between 8 and 12 degrees Celsius.