News

The Czech government is against binding quotas for the acceptance of Syrian refugees, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said following a meeting of the cabinet on Monday. Minister Chovanec said the Czech Republic was not prepared for an influx of thousands of refugees and he would present this stand at a meeting of EU interior ministers on Friday. He said that to his knowledge, several other EU countries would likewise make a stand against binding quotas. In response to a UN appeal, 15 countries around the world have agreed to set up special quotas for fugitives fleeing Syria’s civil war. More than two million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries since the start of the conflict, and another million, still in the country, have reportedly been displaced.

Eighty-six percent of Czechs think that old-age pensions in the Czech Republic are totally inadequate and fail to cover a person’s basic needs, according to the results of a survey conducted by the STEM polling agency. Criticism regarding the size of pensions has gradually been mounting and the outcome of the latest poll is the highest figure since monitoring of people’s perception of pension’s started in 1998. Last year 80 percent of respondents said they considered old-age pensions to be grossly inadequate. The average old-age pension in the Czech Republic is 11, 276 crowns a month. As of next year pensions should be raised by an average 200 crowns.

Police are investigating a tragic accident in the town of Bystřice pod Hostýnem in which a fifty-year-old female driver unexpectedly swerved off the road onto the pavement and smashed into four elderly women. One died on impact, another in hospital shortly after and the remaining two are hospitalized. It is not clear why the woman lost control of the vehicle.

President Miloš Zeman said on Monday he would veto a proposed 14 percent hike in salaries for lawmakers and executive branch officials as of January 2015 if such a bill were approved. The proposal was put forward by the budget committee of the lower house after it won support from deputies groups across the political spectrum. However it was slammed by the government which is pushing for a significantly lower salary increase. The president, who is on a three day visit to south Moravia, said he considered the proposed 14 percent hike inconsiderate and greedy and said deputies should increase their salaries by 3.5 percent which is the salary hike they approved for workers in the public sector next year.