News

The Social Democrats have said they will freeze a 13 million crown gift from a private sponsor following media claims that he may have a shady past. The news site Aktualne.cz recently reported that Tomáš Melich – a Czech businessman now living in Austria – had collaborated with the communist secret police. Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek said on Friday that the party leadership had decided not to use the gift – which was a contribution to the party’s election campaign –until Mr. Melich had cleared his name in court.

Persistent rain over the past 48 hours has swollen rivers and streams in southern Bohemia putting half a dozen villages on flood alert. The town of Rychnov has reported the most serious problems so far, with a local stream flooding a number of houses and nearby fields. People living in the vicinity of swollen rivers have been piling sandbags along the banks for protection. Meteorologists say the region has seen the worst of the bad weather, with the belt of rain expected to move to the eastern parts of the country over the weekend.

Bulgarian translator Angelina Penchevova on Friday received the Premia Bohemica award at the 16th International Book Fair currently underway in Prague. The award is given by the Czech Writers’ Association for promoting Czech literature abroad. Ms. Penchevova has translated several dozen Czech classics into Bulgarian, among them works by Milan Kundera, Bohumil Hrabal and Karel Čapek. This year’s book fair has attracted more than 400 publishers and authors from around Europe and the United States. The four-day event includes meetings with writers, panel debates and book presentations.

There is continuing controversy between the two main rivals in the upcoming general elections with regard to who is responsible for the aggressive tone of the election campaign. The right-wing Civic Democrats warned on Thursday that provocateurs posing as their supporters could launch a physical attack against Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek and his wife Petra at the close of the election campaign. A spokesman for the party said the Civic Democrats had heard disturbing rumors of a possible attack at their recent election rally. The Social Democrat leader countered that if that were the case it was their duty to report it to the police.

The Civic Democrats have distanced themselves from all forms of physical aggression at election rallies. The party has now filed a criminal complaint against the Social Democrat election leader, Jaroslav Tvrdík, for alleging that they were operating paid commandoes in the campaign. Ever since the recent physical attack on a senior Social Democrat leader, the party has been holding meeting with the public inside buildings in order to better guarantee security.