News

Thousands of pilgrims from the Czech Republic and Poland will go to the Vatican to attend the canonisation of two former popes, John XXII and John Paul II, on April 27, Pavel Dokládal, head of the pilgrim centre of the bishopric in Hradec Králové, east Bohemia, told the ctk news agency. The event will be attended by leading Czech Catholic Church dignitaries: Cardinal Dominik Duka, Olomouc Archbishop Jan Graubner and Hradec Králové Bishop Jan Vokál. John Paul II, who was of Polish origin, became pope in 1978, when the communist rule in eastern Europe was peaking. His steadfast views, openness and charisma won him many admirers in the Czech Republic which he visited three times during his pontificate.

The Czech Republic and Austria say they want to turn a new leaf in bilateral ties, intensifying both governmental and regional cooperation. Following a meeting in Vienna between Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and visiting Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek the two sides said much time had been lost through past hostilities in bilateral relations and they were ready to reestablish dialogue on all outstanding issues, boost business and cultural ties and improve the infrastructure linking the neighbor states. Two major areas of friction between the Czech Republic and Austria are the countries’ stands on nuclear energy and the Beneš decrees which sanctioned the expulsion of 2.5 million Sudeten Germans from post-war Czechoslovakia.

Finance Minister Andrej Babiš has urged Health Minister Svatopluk Němec and the countrý’s largest health insurer VZP to try and resolve the controversy surrounding the Prague Proton Centre. Following a drawn out-controversy between the insurer and the centre the dispute looks set to end up in court in a case that Mr. Babiš said could cost the state billions of crowns. Police have filed charges of abuse of office against a former manager of VZP in connection with an agreement between the insurer and the Proton Therapy Centre, where he subsequently got a lucrative position. The insurance company is refusing to cooperate with the centre, instead sending cancer patients for treatment abroad, on the argument that the agreement on cooperation signed is highly disadvantageous for it.

The Civic Democratic Party which was forced into the opposition after its crushing defeat in October’s early elections is losing members by the hundreds, the internet news site Novinky.cz reports. Following the corruption scandal that led to the fall of the Civic Democrat-led government and the party's poor showing in the elections the party lost half its members going from 41 thousand to 21 thousand registered members. Its supporters have also turned their backs on the party which only go 7.7 percent of the vote in the last general elections. A complete overhaul of the party’s leadership and its new chairman Petr Fiala have so far failed to turn around the party’s ailing fortunes.