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The Civic Democrats have lost a great deal of support in Prague, but are still likely to come first there in general elections at the end of May, suggests an opinion poll conducted for Czech Television. Some 23.5 percent of respondents said they would give their backing to the Civic Democrats; four years ago the party took 48.3 percent of the vote in the capital. The Social Democrats would come second on 19.5 percent, but have also lost some support, the poll indicates. The big winners in Prague could be two new parties: 19.5 percent of those questioned said they would vote for TOP 09, while 16 percent said they would back Public Affairs. Polls suggest the Social Democrats will win the elections at national level.

The advancing of the Czech Republic’s national interests would benefit from greater agreement between the country’s political parties, the foreign minister, Jan Kohout, said at a conference on foreign policy on Monday. At the seminar, which took place at the Foreign Ministry, representatives of the two biggest Czech parties the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats traded accusations as to which of them had most harmed Czech foreign policy in recent times. The Civic Democrats’ Alexandr Vondra said the foreign policy of a mid-sized state should not be the victim of domestic squabbling, which was a policy Social Democrats leader Jiří Paroubek had begun in 2006. But Social Democrat Jan Hamáček said it was the Civic Democrats, who led the last Czech government, that had damaged the country’s standing in the world and the EU.

The ice hockey star Jaromír Jágr says he regrets the fact that around two dozen Czech players from the NHL have declared themselves unavailable for the World Championship, which begins in Germany on Friday. Speaking after arriving at Prague Airport on Monday, Jágr said he did not want to judge the absentees, but said they may in time come to regard their decision as stupid. The forward, who is 38, signed a new contract with the Russian club Omsk on Sunday. The newspaper Sport reported that young Czech player Roman Červenka may choose to join Omsk rather than an NHL team, because of Jágr’s presence there.

The one-time Olympic boxing champion Bohumil Němeček has died at the age of 72. Němeček, who was born in Tábor, took gold for Czechoslovakia in the light welterweight division at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. Seven years later he became European champion. He died on Sunday after a long fight against illness, the head of the Czech Boxing Association told reporters.