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Caretaker Prime Minister Jan Fischer met candidates for posts in his cabinet on Monday, but has yet to formally announce the names of any of his ministers. On Monday, Mr Fischer met the head of the Antimonopoly Office, Jan Pecina, who has been put forward by the opposition Social Democrats for the post of interior minister. The caretaker prime minister also met Martín Barták, who is nominated for the post of defence minister, and with possible future culture minister Marta Smolíková. On Monday, the interim prime minister also held a meeting with outgoing deputy prime minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra and his deputy Marek Mora. Mr Fischer’s cabinet will take over the country on May 9 and oversee the last third of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency.

Some 43 percent of Czechs believe that the toppling of the government halfway through this country’s EU presidency damages the image of the Czech Republic abroad, a poll conducted by the Factum Invenio agency and published on Monday suggests. Thirty-six percent of those polled, however, think that the change of leadership in Prague makes no difference whatsoever to the way that the country is perceived. According to the survey, eight percent of Czechs actually think that the change of government will improve the Czech Republic’s image in Europe. The Czech Republic took over from France at the helm of the EU on January 1, it hands over to Sweden on July 1.

On Saturday, 300 neo-Nazis marched in the town of Ústí nad Labem, north Bohemia; although there were no incidents of violence, two leftist radicals were detained. Around 1,000 police officers were out in force well ahead of the march to prevent neo-Nazis and anarchists from clashing. The work by police units was praised on Sunday by the prime minister. Ahead of the march, life in the centre of Ústí nad Labem largely came to a standstill, with shops and restaurants closed. The ultra right-wing organisation behind the demonstration said it was meant to mark the 64th anniversary of the bombing of the city at the end of World War II. But specialists on extremism say the real reason was to mark the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth.

Romany organisations and activists have expressed deep concern over the attack against the Romany family in the Opava region. On Sunday one organisation warned Romanies to be vigilant against “terrorist attacks by Czechs”, a statement backed by a number of Roma groups throughout the country. The various movements also agreed that the Roma community could not rely on what they described as a “failing state apparatus”, saying that arson attacks on the Roma in the Czech Republic were "not isolated". Some monitoring the situation have described conditions as becoming intolerable. On Sunday, the attack was condemned by both the Czech president and the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. The latter made clear the outgoing government’s priority will be to begin tackling the problem of growing extremism when it meets on Monday.