News

The speaker of the Czech Parliament’s lower house, Social Democrat Miloslav Vlček, stepped down on Thursday over breaching money laundering laws. Mr Vlček admitted he had returned a 1.1 million crown loan to his assistant in 2005 in cash which was illegal as Czech legislation only permits bank transfers of financial sums higher than 500,000 crowns. He came under pressure of his own party that convened on Thursday an extraordinary session of the party leadership. Miloslav Vlček also stepped down as MP and the leader of the Social Democrat ballot in the Olomouc region for May’s general election.

The police have accused two people, a woman and her son, of attempted murder in connection with March’s arson attack against a Romany family in the north-eastern city of Ostrava, Czech TV said on Thursday. A police spokeswoman said five people had been detained but three were later released for lack of evidence. According to local inhabitants the accused were neighbours of the attacked family.

In March, a bottle of flammable liquid was thrown into a Romany family’s house where a 13-year-old girl managed to put out the fire, preventing any serious damage. The most vicious of these attacks, which took place in Vítkov last year, left a two-year old girl injured and scarred for life.

Czech President Václav Klaus told the Czech weekly Euro on Thursday that the Eurozone project had failed. The single European currency did not bring the desired effect by failing to accelerate economic growth. Mr Klaus said a lack of homogeneity in the Eurozone became obvious with the onset of the economic crisis. However, the Czech head of state said he believed that the Eurozone will continue to exist at extremely high costs for all its member states and other EU countries. The Czech Republic should not hurry with the adoption of the euro, Václav Klaus added.

Representatives of the Czech government, employers and trade unions agreed on Thursday on 13 steps that should help the country’s economy recover from the crisis. These include the completion of the Temelín nuclear power plant, reconstruction of the coal-powered plant in Prunéřov, the construction of weirs on the Labe River as well as a review of government expenditures. Prime Minister Jan Fischer said these measures should re-initiate economic growth, improve the corporate environment in the country and lay the ground for the completion of transport and industrial infrastructures. Representatives of all three branches will meet again in early June to evaluate the implementation of the measures.