News

More than half of all primary and secondary schools in the country intend to join the one day token strike in protest of low wages on Monday. The Education Ministry said on Friday that it could make no more concessions, and that it had done its utmost for teachers within the government proposed cuts in spending. The Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka likewise confirmed that there could be no question of allotting extra finances for teachers' pay. Tax officials, employees of land registry and social welfare offices also intend to join the one day protest strike. Meanwhile, the leaders of the governing coalition parties are to meet with officials of the Bohemian and Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions on Monday to discuss the public finance reform and trade unions' suggestions for its modification. The Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla has warned trade unions however not to expect any major concessions.

The Czech Republic has said it will support Croatian ambitions to join the European Union if Zagreb cooperates with the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. On a working visit to Zagreb, the Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said that the Czech Republic was willing to help Croatia as a friendly country in the negotiating process for EU membership, but he said Croatia must meet all conditions for membership. One of the key conditions is cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal, which means that Croatia must extradite its soldiers, including generals, who are charged with war crimes to the ICTY. Croatia is seen as having been reluctant to cooperate in the past, having failed to arrest its prime war crimes suspect, army general Ante Gotovina.

Police have arrested animal rights activists who blocked the Chotebuz crossing on the Czech-Polish border in north Moravia in protest at a truck carrying live horses. Around two dozen activists demanded on Wednesday that vets inspect the animals, which they said were not being transported humanely. A spokesperson for the animal rights campaigners said they would continue their protests in the future.

The Sudeten German Landsmannschaft has strongly criticised statements made by the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, on a visit to Prague on Tuesday. Mr Fischer praised recent conciliatory statements about the post-war expulsion of Czechoslovakia's German minority by Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the prime minister, Vladimir Spidla. The leader of the Landsmannschaft, Bernd Posselt, said on Wednesday that Mr Fischer's comments distorted historical truth and undermined Czechs who were trying to honestly come to terms with their country's past.