News

The Czech Statistical Institute has released a projection of population growth in the Czech Republic leading up to the year 2065. While expecting the population of the Czech Republic to remain roughly the same at roughly 10.5 million inhabitants, 32% of the Czech population is expected to consist of over-65-year-olds by that date. The projection foresees a rise in the average age from the current 40.5 years to 49 as well as a drop in the working age population and a slight decrease in the number of children under 14. Longevity however is expected to increase to 86.5 years for men and 91 years for women. The forecast depends however on a stable flow of migration, without which the population would decline to less than 9 million in the next half century.

Former Czech president Václav Havel has come out in support of the Green Party lead by Martin Bursík, calling the party the authentic and true proponent of green ideals. The Czech Green Party has recently split, with rebel Green MPs now standing for the newly-founded Democratic Green Party in upcoming European elections. On Monday, former president Václav Havel came out in support of Martin Bursík’s Greens, calling the party an alternative to the two main parties in the Czech Parliament, the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats. Mr Havel said that while the two main parties were very similar in their ‘technocracy’, the Greens were the only party concerned by matters aside from economic growth. These are some of the strongest remarks that Mr Havel has made in favour of one particular political party. The Greens are one of around 30 parties standing for election in June’s European parliamentary vote.

The Czech Green Party has handed a petition to interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer calling for human rights observance to be discussed at the upcoming EU-China summit to be held in Prague. On Monday morning, Green deputy Kateřina Jacques and head of the Czech branch of Amnesty International Daša van der Horstová handed the petition to the new prime minister and Minister for Minorities and Human Rights Michael Kocáb. Jan Fischer, who is set to have bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao before the summit which will be chaired by president Václav Klaus, said that he would read the petition thoroughly before making up his mind whether to raise the issue of human rights violations with the Beijing delegation. Ms Jacques and other members of the Friends of Tibet parliamentary group already tried to hand the petition to Czech President Václav Klaus who refused to receive them on Friday.

The number of overnight stays at Czech hotels fell in the first quarter of this year by 8.7 percent to 7.3 million, the Czech Statistical Office said on Monday. The number of guests checking into Czech hotels and pensions was down by 8.4 percent to 2.3 million in the first three months of 2009. According to the Statistical Office, the drop in visitor numbers can be partially explained by the fact that Easter fell late this year, and so tourist numbers for the Easter period will become clear when data for the second quarter is released later this year. In fact, the number of Czechs staying at hotels and pensions in this country was up by around one percent in the first quarter of this year. The Statistical Office suggested that this rise in domestic tourism could have been caused by the good skiing conditions that Czechs enjoyed at the start of the year.