News

The leader of the opposition Mayors and Independents (STAN), Vít Rakušan, said in response to a question from ČTK after Thursday’s meeting of STAN’s expert team that he is ready to visit the parliamentary clubs of the governing parties ahead of the election of a deputy speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.

Rakušan is a candidate for the post of deputy speaker of the chamber and can run only now, after he and the entire government of Petr Fiala (ODS) ended their roles on Monday, when he stepped down as deputy prime minister and interior minister. According to Rakušan, STAN has no other candidate, and the vote could take place in January.

President Petr Pavel will receive the president of the Motorists party and MP Filip Turek on Monday at 11:00 a.m. at Prague Castle. This was announced on Thursday on the website by the communications department of the Presidential Office.

The Motorists want Turek to become minister of the environment. The ministry is currently being led on an interim basis by the foreign minister and party chairman Petr Macinka.

People across the Czech Republic are marking the legacy of playwright, dissident, leading figure of the Velvet Revolution and the country’s first post-communist president, Václav Havel, on the 14th anniversary of his death.

The Václav Havel Library in Prague will remember Havel with humour and irony by staging one of his most successful plays, Vernissage. At the Havels’ family tomb at Vinohrady Cemetery, Senate Speaker Miloš Vystrčil and other members of the upper chamber of parliament will pay tribute to the former head of state. Commemorations will also take place at Hrádeček in the Trutnov region, where Havel had a country cottage and where he died on 18 December 2011 at the age of 75.

A playwright and former dissident, Havel was one of the key figures in the collapse of the communist regime in 1989. He served as the ninth and final president of Czechoslovakia and, after the country’s dissolution, as the first president of the Czech Republic. After leaving office in February 2003, he continued to comment on political and public affairs at home and abroad. His plays continue to be staged even 14 years after his death.

Czech President Petr Pavel spoke over the phone on Wednesday with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. They discussed continued support for Ukraine which will be the main topic of Thursday’s EU summit in Brussels and progress in peace negotiations. According to the Czech president’s office, both leaders agreed it is in their shared interest for any peace agreement to deliver a dignified peace for Ukraine.

“President Zelensky thanked the Czech Republic and its citizens for their long-term support,” Prague Castle said. Zelensky last spoke with President Pavel two months ago. At that time, the presidents also discussed the Czech ammunition initiative, whose future is uncertain following the appointment of a new government led by Andrej Babiš (ANO).