News

The NGO people in Need which organized mock elections in 135 schools around the country has said it will make the results public on Friday. The NGO was criticized for the project by left-wing parties who argued that mock elections politicized the classroom. Many schools dropped out under pressure, but more than 20,000 students took part anyway. The NGO originally promised not to make the vote public until after the real elections, but faced with criticism that he feared the outcome, the leader of the Social Democrats Jiri Paroubek urged the NGO to make the results public right away. The results from a number of schools that broke the agreement and published them separately, suggest that students generally supported right-wing parties.

The last regular session of the lower house ahead of May’s general elections should be held on May 18. On the agenda is a bill recently vetoed by President Klaus which would raise maternity benefits to 2009 levels, a controversial-anti-corruption package which left-wing parties have been trying to push through and which right wing parties oppose on the grounds that it has been poorly drafted, and a bill which would enable the president to be elected in a direct vote. Of those, the bill on maternity benefits stands the highest chance of gaining approval, in which case the presidential veto would be overturned. Any bills that are not passed in three readings by the lower house by May 18th will simply fall under the table.

The Christian Democratic Party has criticized the Education Ministry for an internet guide that provides guidelines on how to teach sex education in schools. The party’s deputy leader, Michaela Sojdrova, says that the guidelines, written by two prominent Czech sex-therapists, are too clinical in their approach to problems such as unwanted pregnancies, STDs, different sexual orientations and sex deviations. The Christian Democrats want the guidelines revised and are pushing for girls and boys to be instructed on the subject separately.

The Czech soccer player Tomáš Ujfaluši has won the Europa League with Atletico Madrid, after the Spanish club overcame England’s Fulham 2:1 in the final on Wednesday night. The defender becomes the seventh Czech player to take a winner’s medal in the competition, which was previously known as the UEFA Cup. Ujfaluši, who is 32, made 78 appearances for the Czech Republic and captained the national team.