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04/01/2009
A group of Czech senators say they are determined to fight a controversial article of the penal code which has come under fire for curtailing press freedom. The respective amendment, which went into effect on April 1st, bans journalists from releasing the names of crime victims and publishing the contents of police wiretappings. The article was originally meant to protect victims from undesirable publicity, but its critics say it has been tailored to protect politicians from possible negative publicity. Senate deputy chairman Petr Pithart, one of the law’s leading critics, said he and 17 other senators were planning to lodge a complaint about it to the Constitutional Court.
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04/01/2009
The most likely time for euro adoption by the Czech Republic are the years 2013 to 2015, according to Czech National Bank governor Zdeněk Tůma. Speaking at an international round table on the current financial crisis, Mr. Tůma said that this time frame was economically feasible but that in the end it would be a political decision. The centre-right government promised to set a euro adoption date on November 1, 2009, but in view of recent developments it will not be in a position to make that decision. However governor Tůma said he was confident that any cabinet would logically resume the discussion about euro adoption in the autumn.
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04/01/2009
The Czech Republic has stopped issuing work permits to several countries’ nationals in view of the economic crisis. The measure concerns Moldova, Mongolia, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam and may stay in effect for several weeks or months. Foreign nationals who are in the country legally and are unable to find work because of the crisis can ask for the government to cover the cost of their fare home. They will also be given food and accommodation until their departure and get 500 euros as a bonus.
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04/01/2009
Feverish preparations are underway for US President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Prague. The US president is to deliver his first public address in Europe on Prague’s Hradčany Square on Sunday morning, but organizers said on Wednesday that in the event of rain the speech could be moved indoors to Černín Palace, the seat of the Czech Foreign Ministry. Some 30,000 people are expected to turn up for the event. In the afternoon President Obama will attend an EU-US summit at Prague’s Congress Centre.
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04/01/2009
Civic Democrat MPs Vlastimil Tlustý and Jan Schwippel, two of the key players in the collapse of the coalition government last week, have assumed leading positions in the party Libertas.cz, it was announced on Tuesday. Both Mr Tlustý and Mr Schwippel will be running on behalf of the eurosceptic, right-of-centre party in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament. Nominations for party ballots in the election closed on Tuesday afternoon. Libertas.cz was established at the beginning of this year by former media magnate Vladimír Železný.
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04/01/2009
The country’s oldest prisoner, eighty-seven-year-old Ludmila Brožová Polednová who is serving a six year sentence for helping to send democratic politician Milada Horaková to the gallows in the hardline 1950s has been transferred to a jailhouse where she can get better medical care. Polednová, who entered the Plzeň jailhouse on March 19th, has been transferred to Světlá nad Sázavou, which specializes in ill and elderly prisoners. Her appeal for the sentence to be postponed on health grounds was rejected. Brožová Polednová, a former communist prosecutor, is the first and only participant in the Horaková show trial to be brought to justice.
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03/31/2009
The chair of the opposition Social Democrats Jiří Paroubek said on Tuesday that a preliminary agreement on early elections had been reached between himself and Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek. A morning meeting between the Civic Democratic Party, Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and the Greens, reportedly resulted in a general consensus among the parties on a date of no later than October 20. Mr Paroubek also announced he would offer Mr Topolánek a proposal within the day for altering the parliamentary term of office set out in the constitution. The Czech government is currently “in resignation” after losing a no-confidence vote last week.
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03/31/2009
In related news, Prime Minister Topolánek on Tuesday put forward five alternatives for the tenure of his ruling coalition. The first suggests the government remain in place for roughly a week, the second until the end of April, when the parties are to agree on measures to counter the current economic crisis. The third and forth proposed dates extend to the beginning and end of June, respectively, after elections for the European Parliament and the completion of the Czech EU Presidency. The final alternative is that the government would remain in place until early elections. Mr Topolanek also stated on Tuesday that as the chair of the majority party he wants to form the new government himself, though he need not remain at its head. The opposition Social Democrat Party has so far resisted all proposals for the government to remain in place for more than a few weeks, and is promoting the appointment of a caretaker government.
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03/31/2009
Israeli President Shimon Peres has concluded a two-day state visit to the Czech Republic on Tuesday, meeting the outgoing Prime Minister and former president Václav Havel. Following a meeting with Czech counterpart Václav Klaus on Monday, Mr Peres said he expected significant progress in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this year. He later visited the Terezín memorial to victims of the Jewish Holocaust. The Terezín fortress was used as an assembly camp for Jews before they were sent by the Nazis to their deaths in concentration camps.
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03/31/2009
The upper house of parliament may be convening for an emergency session to force a vote on the Lisbon Treaty, the Civic Democrat Senator Jiří Stříteský said on Tuesday. Such a convention would be the first in the chamber’s history. The Social Democratic Party is moving to get Lisbon ratification on the Senate agenda through the standard process. Nonetheless, the party has insisted on an April Senate vote and has stated that they have the necessary signatures of all party senators to potentially convene an emergency session. The execution of such a session is however a difficult endeavour in terms of timing and practicality, and head of the Senate Přemysl Sobotka has stated his own view that convening it would be technically impossible. The Czech Republic is one of four EU member states that have yet to fully ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The Czech Chamber of Deputies passed the treaty in February; Senate approval is still required before the Treaty can be signed by the president and ratified.
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