News

Leader of the Green Party Martin Bursík also said that he believed President Václav Klaus was instrumental in the fall of Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek’s government. The Green Party was the smallest party in the government coalition which formally handed in its resignation on Thursday. Environment Minister Martin Bursík commended Mirek Topolánek for speaking out against the Czech president, saying that only now were members of the Civic Democrats starting to realize that Mr Klaus, the party’s founder, had betrayed them. Mr Bursík reacted angrily to suggestions that he would be looking to negotiate the formation of a new government with the Czech president.

In related news, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said that it is crucial that the Czech government fulfils its role as chief representative of the European Union at the upcoming G20 Summit in London. Mr Miliband said it was important that, despite the current political upheaval in the Czech Republic, Mr Topolánek’s government fulfilled its mandate at next month’s G20 Summit. The summit of leaders from the world’s largest and fastest developing economies is seen as an occasion for leaders to devise a common strategy to overcome the current global financial crisis.

A parliamentary commission set up to advise the state on restituting church property confiscated under Communism has recommended that the government’s current proposals be rejected. The government suggests that around one third of the property confiscated in 1948 be returned to the Church, but on Thursday, the committee voted against this idea by six votes to five. Instead, the committee proposed another round of talks with church representatives to reach a new agreement. The government’s idea for restituting property was rejected by the commission when opposition MPs voted against it, alongside rebel Civic Democrat Vlastimil Tlustý. The commission was established last June by the Czech Lower House to come up with a settlement in this long-running argument.

Nearly one in every two Czechs would like elections to take place as soon as possible following Tuesday’s vote of no-confidence in the government, a poll conducted for the daily Mladá fronta Dnes by the Median agency has found. Some 45.1 percent of respondents called for early elections while 13.3 percent said they would prefer a caretaker government until the end of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency in July. The opposition Social Democrats, who instigated the confidence vote, have said that they are not against the idea of such a caretaker government.