News

The leaders of the three ruling coalition parties have failed to come to a compromise over the future of the government at a joint meeting in Prague on Wednesday. The coalition of the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Freedom Union, has been threatening to break up, following internal disagreement over whether Prime Minister Stanislav Gross should remain in office. Mr Gross has been in hot water after failing to explain how he was able to pay for his flat in Prague six years ago.

Fearing the scandal would damage the coalition's image, the junior Christian Democrats have called onto Mr Gross to be removed from office. However, the prime minister's party, the Social Democrats, say he has their full support and would be willing to lead a minority government without the Christian Democrats. The third coalition partner, the Freedom Union, is not in favour of a minority government and some Freedom Union senators have joined the Christian Democrats in their call for Mr Gross' resignation.

The Czech Republic is preparing for a battle against a flu pandemic. The cabinet has approved a health ministry proposal to buy medication worth 290 million Czech crowns (a little under 13 million US dollars) that reduces flu symptoms. The last flu pandemic broke out in 1968. Since it would take three months to prepare a vaccine if it were to break out today, the government plans to give the medication Tamiflu to some 1.8 million citizens - children, the elderly, diabetics, or chronic, heart or oncology patients as well as citizens needed to run the state like police officers, fire fighters, and health care workers, for example.

Every second Czech would welcome the resignation of Prime Minister Stanislav Gross and almost one in three is in favour of holding early elections, according to a new poll by the SC&C agency. The poll of 908 people was conducted for the leading Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes following calls for the prime minister to step down over the unclear financing of his apartment and his wife's controversial business activities. Of those surveyed, roughly one in five had no opinion as to how the current crisis in the governing coalition should be resolved, while only one in ten said they were in favour of Mr Gross's party, the Social Democrats, forming a minority government. Roughly one in four persons polled said they would prefer that Mr Gross resign but have the coalition remain in power.

Czech Dentists are threatening to leave health insurance companies and plan to ask patients to pay for every service directly by the middle of next year. The president of the Czech Dentists' Association, which held a general meeting on Saturday, said the dentists' contracts with insurers expire in mid-2006. If the government fails to introduce changes to its health insurance policy that would set more favourable conditions, the country's dentists, who are every year decreasing in number, will stop co-operating and will take direct payments from patients instead.