News

All 74 newly-elected Social Democratic MPs have vowed not to support a government coalition made up of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Green Party if such a coalition is led by the Civic Democratic Chairman, Mirek Topolanek. This declaration has been signed by all the new Social Democratic MPs and is important because Mr. Topolanek needs to push the balance of support to 101 seats, rather than the proposed coalition's current mandate of 100 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

Social Democratic leader, Jiri Paroubek, is in favour of a caretaker government, though he admits that if he were entrusted with forming a government he would aim for a political government, and not the caretaker variety. Meanwhile, deputy chairman of the Social Democrats, Bohuslav Sobotka, has said that the Civic Democratic Party should rid itself of the illusion that it will secure the number of votes possible to govern.

A vote-of-confidence in the new government is expected to take place on June 27th.

The Social Democratic Party will most likely not appeal the election results, as its leader Jiri Paroubek suggested last weekend after the votes were counted. In an unexpected speech on election night, the defeated Mr. Paroubek refused to acknowledge that the Civic Democrats won the elections, and he likened the results to an "assault on democracy not seen since February 1948," when the Communists took power. After meeting with President Klaus at Prague Castle on Thursday, Mr. Paroubek made a public apology for his emotionally-charged speech.

Now one week after the elections, Mr. Paroubek says that it is unlikely that his party will file an appeal with the Supreme Court. Eleven appeals have already been filed during the past week, and Mr. Paroubek is satisfied that the courts will be busy enough with this matter.

Hundreds of people, including politicians and foreign guests, took part in a ceremony Saturday to remember the Nazi massacre that levelled the central Bohemian village of Lidice 64 years ago. The ceremonies included the opening of an updated and expanded exhibit at the newly-reconstructed Lidice Memorial Museum. The original museum, opened in 1962, began to undergo extensive reconstruction last year.

In addition, former Czech Cultural Minister, Pavel Dostal, was awarded honorary citizenship by the town of Lidice, in memoriam. Mr. Dostal died in 2005 and during his time as cultural minister, he worked to revitalize the Lidice Memorial.

The village of Lidice was crushed by Nazi forces on 10 June 1942 in retaliation for the murder of the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich. 340 villagers were murdered by the Nazis in Lidice.

Numbers released by the Czech Statistical Office on Friday have shown that the economy saw record growth in the first quarter of 2006, improving from 5.4 to 7.4 percent year-on-year. The improvement, fuelled by higher foreign trade, investment, industrial production, and household spending, was largely expected by analysts. Some observers have stated that the fast growth will help the Czech economy approach the euro zone more quickly. On Friday, outgoing Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek reacted to the information saying it was "unfortunate for his party" the news came a week after the election.

The Civic Democrats' Mirek Topolanek, meanwhile, indicated that all parties should make use of the situation to push for lowering unemployment as well as the public debt.