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08/19/2019
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) and Social Democrat (ČSSD) chairman Jan Hamáček failed to find common ground at a meeting Monday over the appointment of a new Minister of Culture.
Hamáček said the Social Democrats, the junior coalition party, insist on their candidate, Michal Šmarda, and say President Miloš Zeman is violating the Constitution by failing to appoint him.
President Zeman said last week that Mr Šmarda was unqualified for the job, a view PM Babiš said on Friday that he shared.
Critics say the president is trying to exercise undue political power through his largely ceremonial position. He and Mr Babiš are due to meet to discuss the situation on Tuesday. The Social Democrats have threatened to quit the government if their candidate is not appointed.
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08/19/2019
The anti-government protest movement A Million Moments for Democracy plans a march through Prague on the 50th anniversary of a protest held a year after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Organisers of the march on 21 August say they want both to commemorate past events and draw attention to current political issues that threaten the Czech democracy.
The group has accused Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) of undermining the rule of law while milking Brussels and Czech taxpayers to line his own pockets.
The Czech police have recommended that Mr Babiš be charged with fraud tied to the use of EU funds. He is also accused of having a conflict of interest because many decisions he makes benefit the Agrofert business empire he founded.
In late June, A Million Moments for Democracy organised the biggest public protest since the 1989 Velvet Revolution that overthrew Communism, calling for Mr Babiš to resign.
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08/19/2019
The ministers of finance and education agreed Monday on a draft budget for the education sector of 213 billion crowns in 2020, roughly 8 percent more than this year. That includes an extra1 billion crowns earmarked mainly to recruit new teachers.
Minister of Education Robert Plaga (ANO) said more teachers will be needed in the coming years due to higher birth rates earlier in this decade.
The draft budget counts on raising teachers’ salaries by 10 percent next year and by 9 percent in 2021, in line with the government’s pledge to raise salaries in the education sector to 150 percent of 2017 levels.
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08/19/2019
Tomáš Berdych made a successful return to the tennis courts on Sunday after a layoff with injury. The Czech, who is 33, beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-1 3-6 6-3 in the first round of a competition in Winston-Salem in the US for his first ATP win in almost six months. He entered the competition as a wild card.
Berdych achieved his highest ranking, fourth in the world, in 2015. He has reached at least the semi-finals of all four Grand Slams but has never won one.
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08/19/2019
The Association of Local Administrations has warned that Czech small towns and village are facing depopulation and called on the government to take steps to resolve the situation, Czech Television reported.
The main reasons people are moving away from smaller urban areas are a reduction of services and insufficient civic amenities.
The head of the Association of Local Administrations, MEP Stanislav Polčák of the Mayors and Independents, told Czech Television that young people were moving to regional cities, leaving only older people in some areas.
The problems faced by specific municipalities are recorded on a special interactive map that the association has been working on for three years.
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08/18/2019
The Chinese Embassy in Prague has protested against statements made about the situation in Hong Kong by some Czech politicians and institutions. In a Facebook post, the embassy said those opinions were erroneous and represented meddling in China’s internal affairs. It said extreme violence had been employed by protestors during demonstrations in Hong Kong.
The head of the Czech Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Pavel Fischer, this week appealed to the Beijing government to refrain from violence. The Czech Confederation of Trade Unions also wrote an open letter to the Chinese Embassy, calling for an end to repression and saying people should not be fired from their jobs for taking part in demonstrations.
Activists have clashed with police in China over the past 10 weeks during protests sparked by an extradition bill.
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08/18/2019
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš of ANO says he wants the party’s coalition government with the Social Democrats to continue. Mr. Babiš told the news website iDnes.cz on Sunday that he was doing his all to ensure this happened. He added that if the Social Democrats’ nominee for arts minister, Michal Šmarda, wished to help the party he would withdraw his candidacy.
President Miloš Zeman has refused to appoint Mr. Šmarda despite the fact that the head of state is meant under the constitution to name ministers proposed by the PM.
Social Democrats leader Jan Hamáček insists that both the coalition agreement, under which his party controls the Ministry of Culture, and the constitution be respected. Otherwise, he says, the party may quit the government.
Mr. Babiš said on Sunday that neither he nor the head of state had violated those documents.
Mr. Hamáček and Mr. Babiš are due to hold talks on Monday to try to break the impasse. The prime minister will speak to President Zeman the following day.
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08/18/2019
Around 20 percent of new apartments in Prague are bought by foreigners, according to developers addressed by the Czech News Agency. The level of purchases by non-Czech nationals is around the same as last year, they said.
Slovaks are the most frequent foreign buyers of Prague properties, followed by people from Western Europe and post-Soviet states.
Foreigners display the greatest interest in small flats, frequently in upscale projects, the developers said.
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08/18/2019
The leader of the Communists, Vojtěch Filip, says his party would be willing to support a reconstructed minority government led by Andrej Babiš of ANO, if the Social Democrats quit the current coalition. Speaking in an interview for Novinky.cz, he said, however, that the Communist Party actually entering government was out of the question.
Mr. Filip said the current government had won a vote of confidence and the prime minister would have no reason to step down if the Social Democrats left.
If the junior coalition party quits, there have been suggestions that Mr. Babiš could attempt to continue ruling with the support of the Communists, Freedom and Direct Democracy and some MPs elected as Social Democrats who are at odds with the party’s leadership.
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08/18/2019
Conditions for the usage of drones in the Czech Republic are to be tightened up under new rules being imposed across the European Union, Czech Television reported. Operators will be barred from flying drones over large gatherings or accidents so as not to hamper the work of rescue services.
Drone pilots will have to register their machines and will receive identification codes similar to car registration numbers.
The usage of drones following a recent train accident near Mariánské Lázně complicated the work of fire and rescue services.
The head of the Czech Association of Professional Pilotless Plane Operators told Czech Television that a small plastic drone could cause a helicopter to crash if it collided with the aircraft’s rotors.
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