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The outgoing finance minister Eduard Janota has said that an additional 10 billion crowns in expenses will need to be cut in the state budget, if the government wants to retain the deficit within 5.3 percent of GDP. He made the statement during an interview for Czech TV on Sunday, saying overall it was necessary to save 62 billion through increasing revenues and cutting spending. In his view, some expensive state projects needed to be put on hold for the time being, among them the electronic surveillance of prisoners in home detention. Mr Janota said that the Finance Ministry had drawn up a transparent set of steps to deal with the deficit, but said it would be up to the finance minister in the next government to implement individual steps.

A key figure in the Public Affairs party, Vít Bárta – currently negotiating on the next government – has suggested some Civic Democrats would prefer a grand coalition with long-time political rivals the Social Democrats. He made the statement questioning some Civic Democrats' aims during a Czech TV debate programme on Sunday. Mr Bárta did not reveal any concrete names, nor did another guest present, Petr Gazdík of TOP 09, also involved in the talks. But Civic Democrat representative David Vodražka immediately denied the charge, saying he knew of no one in his party who preferred such a scenario. His party leader, Petr Nečas, has been tasked by the country’s president to lead talks on the next government.

After last weekend’s election result, three parties – the Civic Democrats, TOP 09 and Public Affairs – earned a realistic chance of forming a new centre-right government with an unprecedented majority in the Chamber of Deputies. But newcomers Public Affairs, concretely Mr Bárta, have issued a number of statements since that were perceived as potentially complicating negotiations. All three parties signed a declaration of intent earlier this week as indication they were taking talks on forming a new government seriously.

The head of the Christian Democratic Party – which failed to make it into the Chamber of Deputies in last week’s elections - officially stepped down as party leader on Sunday, despite the fact originally he indicated he would do so only at the Christian Democrats’ next party conference, when a new leader will be chosen. An exact date for the convention has not been decided yet, but some members are favouring a date in June. Until then, the party will be led by deputy leader Michaela Šojdrová. The Christian Democrats are one of the oldest parties in the Czech Republic and had been in the lower house for 91 years. However, they had suffered a long-term drop in voter preference and in last week’s general election received only 4.4 percent of the vote, short of the critical five percent needed to make it into the Chamber. The party still has four representatives in the Senate.

Around a hundred demonstrators protested against Israel on Saturday on Prague’s Wenceslas Square, decrying a deadly raid this week by Israeli forces against an aid ship that had sailed in defiance of the country’s blockade of Gaza. Nine activists were killed in clashes aboard the Mavi Marmara during the commando strike. Protestors in Prague chanted slogans and carried a black coffin symbolising the victims. The turnout in the Czech capital was much smaller than in a number of other major European cities: in Paris, 5,000 demonstrated; London also saw several thousand.