News

The Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross has strengthened his position as leader of his Social Democrats ahead of a party congress in March, raising his chances of remaining head of government into 2006. Two regional party chapters backed Mr Gross's leadership at the weekend and another delivered a no preference vote between Mr Gross and his leftist rival, Deputy Prime Minister Zdenek Skromach, who will challenge the incumbent at the congress. Mr Gross's victory would keep in place the Social Democrats' cabinet with two centre-right partners, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union, before the spring 2006 general election. Stanislav Gross took over from Vladimir Spidla as party chief and prime minister in June after the Social Democrats' poor showing in the European Parliament election, but has so far failed to revive the party's fortunes.

Czech charities have collected around 250 million crowns (or ten million dollars) in individual donations for restoration projects in the tsunami affected regions of South Asia. One Czech national is confirmed to have died in the disaster, ten people are still missing in the area.

Around 5,500 people applied for asylum in the Czech Republic in 2004, which is the lowest number since 1999. More than a half of the applicants in 2004 came from Ukraine and Russia. Compared to 2003, the number of asylum seekers dropped by 52 percent. The drop is believed to have been caused by the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union on May 1, 2004.

Fewer than one in four people working for the police in the latter half of last year 2004 had been employed there before 1990, Prime Minister Stanislav Gross said in written reply to a deputy from the main opposition Civic Democrats. A historian told the state news agency CTK this was evidence that a "major overhaul" of the police force had been undertaken. Information on the number of former Czechoslovak secret police (StB) agents working for the police, however, has not yet been made public; Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan, asked to provide this information during a November session of Parliament, said none held any senior police posts. He said perhaps a couple dozen former StB employees work for the police and these had shown they were "of value to the force."