News

The lower house of Parliament has approved a proposal to postpone the obligatory use of monitored cash registers by one year. All cash register activities of small businesses were to be recorded and monitored as of January 2007 in order to help the government fight against the grey economy. Under the new law, those small retailers and restaurants that fail to comply could be fined up to half a million Czech crowns.

The Culture Ministry has declared the famous Maj building in Prague a cultural monument. The building, the ministry says, is an important example of 1970s architecture - drawing on earlier styles like Functionalism but its interior foreshadowing the style known as High-Tech. Maj was designed by architects Miroslav Masak, John Eisler and Martin Rajnis of the Liberec SIAL studio and was completed in 1975. Most foreign visitors will be familiar with the Maj building located on the city's Narodni trida street: it's the site of the Tesco department store.

To an extent, the local and Senate elections have been viewed as a referendum on the inconclusive parliamentary elections in June which prevented politicians from forming a stable government: Mirek Topolanek's cabinet failed in a vote of confidence after just 30 days. President Vaclav Klaus commented the results by saying they were an indication of the mood in Czech society and that they signalled a political solution to the country's drawn out crisis. He is expected to name a new prime minister designate after the Senate elections conclude.

Meanwhile, acting Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told journalists on Monday that his party's success in the municipal and Senate elections is not likely to make negotiations on a new government any easier. But, he did suggest they could be a signal for political rivals, the Social Democrats. Mr Topolanek's Civic Democrats are pushing for early parliamentary elections as the only solution to the continuing political deadlock. The Social Democrats led by Jiri Paroubek have favoured forming a grand coalition. Negotiations on a new government are expected to resume soon.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus - attending ceremonies in Hungary commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule - has said that he would be glad if the young generation never forgot what occurred in Hungary 50 years ago. "Forgetting", the president said, meant facing "formidable consequences". The president stressed that there was no danger today of the emergence of a communist regime similar to the one that brutally suppressed the Hungarian Uprising in 1956. The ceremonies to mark the anniversary are being attended in Budapest by dozens of foreign delegations. Fighting that occurred during the uprising in 1956, mostly in Budapest, cost 2,600 Hungarians their lives. More than 200 people were executed for their roles in the uprising and 200,000 people fled the country.