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10/23/2009
Former agriculture minister Petr Gandlovič has said he would like to run against Mirek Topolánek for the leadership of the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, a regional daily in Ustí nad Labem reported on Friday. The party is to hold a congress this November, but it is not expected to be a leadership convention. Instead, the congress will focus on unifying the party ahead of next year’s election. Party leader Mirek Topolánek reacted to the news on Friday by saying Petr Gandalovič was not a new face in the party capable of re-invigorating the leadership. He also said he did not consider him a true challenger. The former prime minister has led the Civic Democrats since November 2002.
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10/23/2009
Hockey forward Aleš Hemský shined for the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday in the team’s match-up against Columbus in the NHL. The forward earned one goal and four assists. Edmonton took the victory by a score of 6:4. In other action, Aleš Kotalík scored once and got one assist for the Rangers against New Jersey to tie the game at two apiece after two periods. In the third period, though, the Devils struck back, scoring twice to take the game.
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10/23/2009
Sparta Prague defeated the Romanian side Cluj 2:0 in the Czech capital on Thursday night, increasing their chances of qualifying from the group stage of football’s Europa League. Sparta are now second in Group K with four points from three games. Slavia Prague, meanwhile, kept their hopes of reaching the knock-out stages alive with an impressive 1:1 draw away to Valencia, though with only one point so far those hopes are slim. There are two more rounds of the group stage of the Europa League.
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10/22/2009
US Vice-President Joe Biden is due to arrive in Prague on Thursday evening ahead of talks with Czech political leaders. Mr Biden’s visit follows the cancellation of plans for a US radar base on Czech territory that would have been part of an anti-missile shield. As well as that topic, he is expected to discuss efforts by the American company Westinghouse to win a tender to supply reactors for nuclear power stations in the Czech Republic. On Friday Mr Biden will hold talks with Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer and President Václav Klaus. He will also meet important figures from the worlds of politics, business and culture at the US ambassador’s residence in Prague.
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10/22/2009
The lower house of the Czech Parliament has again adjourned a debate on a draft budget for 2010. After devoting several hours to the matter both on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, a vote has been postponed until Friday. Though several speakers have criticised it, MPs from almost all parties are expected to approve in the first reading a budget with a deficit of CZK 162.7 billion (around USD 9.4 billion). That amounts to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product. Compared to this year’s budget, revenues in next year’s will drop by 8.2 percent, while expenditures will increase by 2.8 percent.
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10/22/2009
Meanwhile, the government wants to increase the budget deficit for 2009 from CZK 38.1 billion to 52.2 billion, just a few days after itself approving the former figure. However, the Ministry of Finance says that because of the economic crisis this year’s real deficit could in the end be significantly higher than 52.2 billion.
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10/22/2009
Thursday’s session of the Chamber of Deputies was briefly interrupted when the minister of justice, Daniela Kovářová, collapsed. Former health minister David Rath and MP Boris Šťastný, both doctors, offered her medical assistance before she was helped from the lower house. The speaker ordered that camera crews not record the incident, as it would be unethical.
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10/22/2009
The Czech Republic has seen what appears to be its first death caused by swine flu. A woman with a heart problem died on Thursday after evidently contracting the disease; her condition was already serious and the apparent swine flu caused fatal complications, said a spokesperson for the hospital in Karlovy Vary where the death occurred. A Ministry of Health spokesperson said further tests were needed before the diagnosis could be confirmed.
Another patient, a man aged around 30, is reported to be in a serious condition with apparent swine flu at the same hospital. He too was already suffering from serious health problems before evidently contracting the H1N1 virus. To date around 300 cases of the disease have been recorded in the Czech Republic.
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10/22/2009
The right of centre Civic Democrats have hit out at the Social Democrats’ refusal to back their choice as the Czech Republic’s European commissioner, Alexandr Vondra. Civic Democrats’ leader Mirek Topolánek said it would make sense for the two biggest parties to agree on a candidate. Otherwise, he said, whoever wins elections next spring might seek to replace the Czech commissioner. The Social Democrats are putting forward Vladimír Špidla, who is currently the commissioner for social affairs. Originally EU states were due to put forward their choices at a summit in Brussels next week. However, the fact the Czech Republic has yet not ratified the Lisbon treaty means the matter has been postponed until a later EU meeting.
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10/22/2009
The leader of the party Top 09 Karel Schwarzenberg says a condition put forward by Czech President Václav Klaus for signing the Lisbon treaty into effect has damaged relations with Austria. President Klaus wants the Czech Republic to receive an opt-out from the document’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, which he says could lead to property claims from Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II. Mr Schwarzenberg said at a conference on Czech foreign policy that the president’s demand had “opened a front” in relations with Austria over a sensitive issue. He said it had also damaged relations with Hungary.
The Czech Constitutional Court is due to rule next Tuesday on whether the Lisbon treaty is in line with Czech law. If it gives the document the green light, the Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, will ask EU leaders to grant Mr Klaus the opt-out – if he in turn promises not to attempt to block Lisbon in any other way. Without the Czech president’s signature, the treaty, which has already been ratified by the other 26 EU states, cannot come into effect.
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