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President Miloš Zeman declared Sunday that he is broadly in favour of the nascent coalition’s programme goals but had some misgivings about how they could be achieved. In particular, Zeman said he wondered how funding for policy goals could be found given that moves to introduce more progressive tax for individuals and higher company and sector taxes have not been specified. The three way coalition of Social Democrats, ANO, and Christian Democrats have agreed not to introduce any tax changes this year. The head of state repeated that he has not sought to block the coalition’s creation and had given a conditional go ahead for the appointment of ANO leader Andrej Babiš as finance minister.

Czech president Miloš Zeman led tributes to Sharon, describing him as a great and courageous statesman who was not afraid to fight for his nation. Foreign Minister Jan Kohout underlined his moves as prime minister to foster peace with the Palestinians, such as the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Sharon was a controversial exponent of Jewish settlements on land earmarked for the Palestinians and was tarnished by the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon following the invasion of the country when he was defence minister.

A total of Kč 6 million has been set aside this year by the government for a project to restore the abandoned family home of Czech student Jan Palach and make it into a fitting memorial. Prague philosophy student Palach set fire to himself on January 16, 1969, to protest at the passivity of Czech and Slovaks towards the Soviet led invasion of the country in August 1968 to clamp down on the so-called Prague Spring. He died a few days later. Palach was brought up in a village near the central Bohemian town of Mĕlnik, where the family house is now falling into disrepair.

Social Democrat ministerial nominees have hit back at president Miloš Zeman’s attacks on their suitability for office. Jiří Dienstbier, earmarked to be the minister for human rights, said that the head of state was totally off track when he suggested that he would not be able to fulfill his functions because he had been selected to head the party’s campaign for upcoming European Parliament elections and would be campaigning from February onwards. The party is seeking someone else to head the campaign after he was offered the Cabinet post, Dienstbier said.

The head of state announced Friday that he would name Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka prime minister on January 17 but that the Cabinet’s formation was not likely till the end of the month. Zeman suggested Sobotka cast around for other ministerial candidates and warned that he was not obliged to automatically accept nominations for ministers.