News

In total, 137 people died in road accidents in July and August, which was seven victims fewer than last year and the lowest number of road deaths since 1990. In August, 63 people were killed on Czech roads, which was 11 people fewer than in the same month last year. The police have asked drivers to exercise extra caution over the last weekend of the summer holidays when traffic is expected to be dense as holidaymakers are returning home.

President Miloš Zeman will set out on a tour of Czech regions next week, starting in the eastern Zlín region where he is scheduled to spend three days. A week later, Mr Zeman is set to visit the Pardubice region, followed by southern Moravia by the end of September. However, the president’s plans have come under criticism over his involvement in the election campaign. Mr Zeman’s former party, the SPOZ, has fared best in the Pardubice and Zlín region where the president’s chief of staff, Vratislav Mynář, will head the party’s ballot in the upcoming early general election. Mr Zeman said he did support the party but would not participate in its campaigning.

The prosecution in the corruption case against the former Central Bohemian governor David Rath has introduced as evidence a new video on Friday that shows the details of Mr. Rath’s arrest and disproves a number of statements that the defense has made. Unlike the first video that was shown during hearings, this one was taken from a different angle by a camera on a policeman’s uniform and clearly shows the whereabouts of the defendant and the fact that the box, which contained the alleged bribe, was never out of the defendant’s sight. Mr. Rath has claimed from the beginning that he thought that the box contained a bottle of wine from his co-defendant Kateřina Pancová, and that during his arrest the money was placed inside by the police, while he was being taken aside. Mr. Rath and 10 other defendants have been charged with bribe-taking and manipulating public tenders and may face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Former chairman of the Green Party, Martin Bursík, has gathered enough signatures to support the registration of his new Liberal Ecological Party in a record three days. Since announcing his intent to found a new party, the group has been able to gather the 1,500 signatures necessary and is planning to register the new party on Friday. Mr. Bursík said that once it is registered, the party will run in the general elections in October, but it has not been decided yet whether it will run alone or in partnership with another political entity. The new group has received support from the Czech-American economist Jan Švejnar, founder of the betting agency Fortuna Michal Horáček and others.