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Seven parties now stand to win seats in the lower house, according to a poll conducted by the STEM agency just six weeks ahead of the country’s general elections. The Social Democrats would come out top with 30 percent of the vote, followed by the Communist Party with 15 percent. The centre-right TOP 09 would get 12 percent of the vote, followed by the right wing Civic Democrats with 11 percent. The three potential newcomers are the Citizens’ Rights Party – Zemanites with 7.4 percent, the ANO 2011 party headed by business tycoon Andrej Babiš with 7.7 percent and the Christian Democrats with 5.5 percent of the vote.

Former Czech president Václav Klaus has ruled out a candidacy to the European Parliament, telling Czech Radio's flagship Radiožurnál on Sunday that recent speculation in both the domestic and international media had been unfounded. The former head-of-state, a well-known euro skeptic, last week published a manifesto in which he charged that EU leaders were striving for a superstate that - in his view - would threaten histories of individual countries and as well as democracy. Mr Klaus recently came close to launching a political comeback on the Czech political scene but turned down the opportunity at the last minute on the grounds there wasn't enough time to build a new party ahead of early elections.

Next year's state budget deficit could reach 112 billion crowns outgoing Finance Minister Jan Fischer said Sunday on public broadcaster Czech TV. Originally, the interim government had counted on a deficit of two billion less. The finance minister stressed that essential for him was that the number did not exceed three percent of GDP. The government is still to debate the budget proposal; the tripartite, with union, government, and business representatives will also meet to discuss the budget on September 20.

The country's Health Ministry has decided to take steps in combatting alcoholism after surveys suggested repeatedly that alcohol abuse in the country is high, writes news site noviny.cz. According to the website, doctors will now have to screen patients they suspect of alcoholism according to a method known as screening and brief intervention - referring those who abuse alcohol on to specialists. Deputy Health Minister Ferdinand Polák said the system had worked abroad and expressed the hope it would work in the Czech Republic. Specialists have suggested the system could help thousands each year, not least those just slipping into addiction.