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Former leader of the Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, on Tuesday commented on David Rath’s arrest, stating that the case demonstrated the party had failed to become a viable alternative to the right-of-center parties. He added that in many regions, governors of the Social Democratic party used politics as a means for enterprise. Mr Paroubek called the opposition party “a clone” of the Civic Democrats, some of whose senior officials have come under suspicion of corruption in the past. The former Social Democrats’ leader, who is currently the head of the left-leaning NS-LEV 21, made it clear that he feels the Social Democrats had failed in implementing their anti-corruption agenda. Since the 2008 regional elections, the party has been governing all of the country’s regions with the exception of Prague.

Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek, speaking on the financial problems in Greece, said that the best solution to the country’s debt crisis would be to leave the Eurozone. At negotiations with the EU’s finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesdays, Mr Kalousek gave his opinion on the matter. He added that unless Greece stuck to the conditions of the bail-out plan, it could not remain a member of the Eurozone. What consequences it would have for the Czech Republic if Greece left the common currency union was difficult to predict, he said. On Tuesday afternoon, rival political leaders failed to reach an agreement on the formation of a new Greek government. Snap elections will have to be held again.

The Czech economy’s growth rate in the first quarter of 2012 ranks among the worst within the EU, according to fresh data from Eurostat. The Czech Republic came in second-to-last, with only Hungary having a worse rate of growth. In the first three months of 2012, the Czech economy shrank by one percent GDP. However, Eurostat’s new data did not include eight of the union’s 27 member states. Among those not included in the newest figures was debt-ridden Greece. Overall, the economy in the EU in the first quarter of 2012 grew by 0.1 percent year-on-year, while it stagnated in the Eurozone.

A Czech citizen has been sentenced to five years in prison by a French court for driving under the influence of marijuana and causing a traffic accident last March in which three people were killed. The car crash happened near Paris, in the city Combs-la-Ville. The 43-year-old driver failed to notice a traffic jam and crashed into the car in front of him. Three people were killed; four injured, one of them seriously. The driver was speeding and police found high levels of marijuana in his system.