News

The Gay Initiative has ended its activities in the Czech Republic saying its main objectives had been achieved. The civic association in support of gays and lesbians was set up in 1990, shortly after the fall of communism, to fight prejudices against gays and lobby for equal rights and opportunities for gays and lesbians. The association's chairman Jiri Hromada said at his last news conference on Wednesday that he was happy to say that most of the association's goals had been achieved and that the public's attitude towards gays had changed radically for the better. The Czech Republic was the first post-communist state to pass a law enabling same-sex registered partnerships.

The Culture Ministry has finally decided that the Prague department store, formerly known as "Maj" will be declared a cultural monument. Culture Minister Martin Stepanek on Wednesday dismissed a protest by the building's owner, the Czech Republic's branch of Tesco, against an earlier decision by the ministry to that effect. The ministry says the building, located in the centre of Prague, is an important piece of architecture of the 1970s, relating to the functionalist style of the period between the two world wars.

The line-up of the proposed centre-right coalition government involving the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Greens is to be finalized later today at a meeting of the Christian Democratic Party's executive leadership. One of the party's candidates for a ministerial post rejected the offer at the eleventh hour necessitating a last minute shake-up in one or two posts.

The Civic Democratic Party is divided over the proposed government. In recent days the prime minister has come under fire from his own party members for allegedly making too many concessions to the Christian Democrats and the Greens. On Saturday the prime minister slammed one of his leading critics - the party's deputy chairman and mayor of Prague Pavel Bem, saying that his stand stemmed from economic rather than political interests. In Saturday's edition of the Czech daily Lidove Noviny, Mr. Topolanek suggested that Mr. Bem's past cooperation with the Social Democrats in the City Hall involved some dubious agreements and that he was now pushing for a similar model on the national level. The remarks have provoked outrage at Prague City Hall and Mr. Bem has demanded a public apology.

The Civic Democratic Party's deputies group is to meet on Wednesday to discuss the conditions of the government deal. The party's leadership will be asked to explain why it failed to lay claim to key cabinet posts such as the finance and foreign ministries.