News

Also following government talks on Tuesday: chairman of the Freedom Union's deputies club Karel Kunhl and the leader of the Christian Democrats Miroslav Kalousek stated they believed that a recent government agreement on raising regulated rent was indeed valid, with Mr Kalousek saying he thought the agreement reached would be a "viable compromise" for most Social Democrat MPs. That, however, has not been reflected by the Social Democrats so far: last week several Social Democrats, including Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, cast doubt on the agreement reached in January, and on Tuesday Social Democrat negotiators continued to insist a rise in rents should grow more slowly than previously proposed. In January Finance Minister Sobotka and Minister for Local Development Pavel Nemec approved a plan that would see regulated-rents go up three times by 2006, each time at a rate of 10 percent. However, due to an expected rise in the VAT on the water rate, Mr Sobotka hinted at the weekend the rise in regulated rent might come down several percentage points.

Elected officials in the region of southern Bohemia have expressed their opposition to a plan to complete third and fourth reactor blocs at the Czech Republic's controversial Temelin nuclear power plant. In a resolution drafted on Tuesday officials also expressed their opposition to the creation of a deep-storage nuclear waste facility in the region. The resolution serves as a "recommendation" to the government. District commissioner Jan Zahradnik indicated on Tuesday it would now be up to the government on how it "weighed" the resolution.

President Vaclav Klaus has become the country's most popular politician, winning 69% of confidence votes, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM polling agency. The President's popularity ratings have soared during his first year in office, going from 35% in January of last year to the present 69%. Interior minister Stanislav Gross has placed second on the popularity ladder with a 60% confidence rating, and the country's Ombudsman Otakar Motejl has placed third with 54 %.

The Czech government has approved Milos Kuzvart, a former environment minister and serving MP for the Social Democrats, to become the Czech Republic's first representative to the European Commission. The decision to put forward Mr Kuzvart had been widely expected despite objections within the two junior government parties, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union. On Wednesday government spokeswoman Anna Veverkova told the Czech news agency CTK the decision to appoint Mr Kuzvart had not been unanimous, with ministers from the junior parties abstaining on the decision. In recent weeks junior party members had made it clear that they did not agree with Mr Kuzvart's nomination, saying they would have preferred a candidate with more international experience. Still, a spokesman for Romano Prodi, the head of the European Commission, has already welcomed Mr Kuzvart's nomination as an excellent choice.