News

The Czech army is looking to recruit over 1,000 young people in 2009. Adds have appeared in several national dailies stating what professions the military is specifically interested in. The three-phase recruitment campaign will target both Prague and the regions and the army believes that the financial crisis is likely to play in its favour, since many young people can be expected to loose their jobs. Over 4,600 employees left the military in the course of 2008 and interest in working for the armed forces seems to be waning.

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has made clear that the state budget deficit for 2009 could practically double as a result of the economic downturn. On Czech TV’s debate programme Otázky Václava Moravce on Sunday, the minister said that the deficit could go as high as 75 billion crowns (the equivalent of around 3.5 billion US dollars). According to Mr Kalousek, the final numbers will depend on the country’s overall economic performance. The state budget, approved in December, had counted on a deficit of 38.1 billion crowns, but the previous number was based on projections the economy would grow by 4.8 percent. Following the increased impact of the global financial crisis, the finance ministry has now estimated that the Czech economy could grow by as little as 1.4 to 1 percent.

The minister for minorities and human rights, Micahel Kocáb, has labelled as “completely unacceptable” a march on Saturday by right-wing extremists through Janov - a largely-Roma area in the town of Litvinov, in the north of the Czech Republic. Saturday’s march, organised by the right-wing Workers’ Party, was without incident, but in a statement Mr Kocab compared members’ activities to those of militant SA groups in the Nazis’ rise to power in 1930s Germany. About 30 members of the Workers Party on Saturday marched in so-called “patrols” in Janov, handing out leaflets to local non-Roma residents, asking whether they were satisfied with measures taken by the local town hall. Last year, the extremist party organised a march in the area that led to the worst street violence in the Czech Republic in eight years.

Christian Democrat MP and former minister for regional development Tomáš Kvapil is in serious condition after suffering a stroke on Saturday. Mr Kvapil, who is 53, had to undergo emergency surgery, the news site Týden reported. The MP's family has been in contact with the Christian Democratic Party leadership. Tomáš Kvapil served as minister for regional development from 1997 to 1998 and is well-known for his opposition to a Czech reality TV show called Výměna manželek – in which contestants swapped their families for an allotted period of time.