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05/23/2012
Prime Minister Petr Nečas said on Wednesday he was not principally against letting David Rath, an MP who stands accused of corruption, defending himself in Parliament ahead of a vote by the lower house on whether he should be stripped of his parliamentary immunity. The prime minister said such a session would have to be closed to the media and public and the matter would have to be decided by some form of consensus between the parties represented in the lower house. Earlier this week parliament’s mandate and immunity committee heard Mr. Rath’s testimony at a villa belonging to the Interior Ministry rather than allowing him to enter parliament.
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05/23/2012
NGOs working to prevent child abuse report an alarming increase in such cases over the past decade. Zuzana Baudyšová from Our Child Foundation said at a press briefing in Prague on Wednesday that according to statistics compiled by the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry the number of child abuse cases is now five times higher than it was 10 years ago. Presently the ministry registers 6642 cases of abused children, which Baudyšová fears may be the tip of the iceberg. She says that child-care in the Czech Republic has gradually worsened with more cases of abuse and neglect present stemming from frustration, overwork and stress on the part of parents.
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05/23/2012
The outcome of a survey conducted by the CVVM agency suggests that the opposition Social Democrats are gaining in strength. If elections were held today they would get 36.5 percent of the vote followed by the Communist party with 21.5 percent. The centre-right Civic Democrats have dropped to a two-year-low with 17 percent support. TOP 09 would get 10,5 percent and the Christian Democrats 5.5 percent.
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05/23/2012
Czech investor Zdeněk Bakala is planning to launch a bid for Polish chemicals group Ciech before the summer, the Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday citing unnamed banking sources. The news agency says that earlier this year, media reported that Bakala's BXR Group and its BXR Partners unit in Poland might be looking at three investments in Poland worth 100-300 million euros. Bakala, majority shareholder in Czech coal miner New World Resources had no immediate comment.
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05/23/2012
The vast majority of Czechs want smoke free restaurants. According to the latest survey results 78 percent of respondents –including many smokers – said they would welcome a smoking ban in restaurants across the board. Forty percent of Czech smokers would support such a ban. It is now up to individual restaurant and pub owners to decide whether or not to ban smoking. A large number of them fear that by doing so their would lose many regulars. Efforts to approve a smoking ban in eateries across the country have repeatedly failed in the past.
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05/22/2012
The parliamentary immunity and mandate committee on Tuesday unanimously voted to recommend to the lower house that MP David Rath be stripped of his immunity and prosecuted. The vote took place after members of the committee heard the testimony from Mr Rath who is under arrest on suspicion of corruption; the hearing was held in an Interior Ministry facility in Prague and lasted for about two hours. Mr Rath’s request to be heard in Parliament was rejected while members of the committee also refused to go to the prison. Mr Rath was arrested last week with an alleged bribe of seven million crowns linked to a public procurement project partly financed by EU funds. The lower house is set to vote on Mr Rath’s immunity at its next session in early June.
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05/22/2012
The OECD on Tuesday cut its growth forecast for the Czech economy from 1previously predicted 1.6 percent growth to 0.5 percent contraction in 2012 due to a decline in domestic consumption spurred by the government’s austerity measures. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recommended the government continue to consolidate public finances at a reasonable pace. The OECD predicts that in 2013, the Czech economy will grow by 1.7 percent due to stronger exports and investments. The Czech Finance Ministry expects a GDP growth of 0.2 percent this year while the central bank expects the economy to stagnate.
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05/22/2012
The rapid response unit of the north Moravian police on Tuesday arrested a woman who entered a school in Havířov, stabbed a teacher and took one of the schoolgirls hostage, the news website idnes.cz reported quoting a witness. The police rescued the girl after a two-hour standoff. The attacker reportedly wanted to abduct the girl but when the teacher tried to prevent her from doing so, the woman took out a knife and stabbed her. The injured teacher has been taken to hospital. Police are investigating the incident including the woman’s motif.
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05/22/2012
Czech trade unions along with members of several dozen NGOs are staging an anti-government protest in Prague on Tuesday. The activists are protesting against the reforms and austerity measures of the centre-right Czech government; they are marching from the unions’ headquarters in Žižkov towards the seat of the government across the river. The police have closed several throughways in the centre of the capital due to the protest. The rally is expected to end by 3 PM. Union leaders also announced no major protests were planned until the end of June.
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05/22/2012
Education Minister Petr Fiala on Tuesday halted a planned reform of the school financing system. Under the planned reform, schools would be getting funding according to the number of pupils in classes rather than payments per each pupil along with a set sum of money. The plan came under fire from teachers who said it would lead to the closing down of up to 70 percent of smaller schools. The ministry will now wait for the draft of the state budget for the coming years before taking a stand on the issue.
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