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A meeting tabled by the head of the Civic Democrats Mirek Topolánek to discuss Prime Minister Jan Fischer’s mandate will not be attended by leaders of the Social Democrats, the Greens, and Prime Minister Jan Fischer himself, Novinky.cz reported on Monday. Mr Topolánek wanted to discuss making possible changes to the interim cabinet, which was originally decided upon by the Social Democrats and Civic Democrats in spring, but the idea met with little enthusiasm from Jiří Paroubek’s Social Democrats. It is now unclear whether Monday evening’s meeting will go ahead at all, Novinky.cz says. On Monday morning, head of the Greens Ondřej Liška said that there was no point in going if Jiří Paroubek and Mr Fischer himself would not be there. It is now thought that representatives of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and TOP 09 will be the only politicians to attend the discussion, should it go ahead.

Deputy Chairman of the Social Democrats Bohuslav Sobotka and former Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg are the most popular politicians in the Czech Republic currently, suggests a poll released by the STEM agency on Monday. Fifty-one percent of respondents assessed both politicians positively, while founder of TOP 09 Miroslav Kalousek came next, with a rating of 43 percent. The poll seemed to suggest that disputes in September on the date of the country’s next general election had almost no bearing on individual politicians’ popularity. In the poll, Mr Sobotka’s standing is down five percent from its position in June, when the last such study was conducted, while the former foreign minister’s rating remains unchanged.

Meanwhile, Czech President Václav Klaus, who remains fiercely opposed to the treaty, refused to say on Saturday whether he intended to sign the document. Speaking to journalists shortly after news of the Irish vote came through, Mr. Klaus said he was disappointed by the outcome but ready to accept it. He pointed out that he was not at present able to sign the treaty since he was bound by law to await the outcome of a Constitutional Court ruling on whether the treaty is in line with Czech legislation, a process that could take between six weeks and six months. With Polish President Lech Kaczynski expected to sign the treaty in the coming days, the Eurosceptic Czech president is seen as the last obstacle on the road to completing ratification by the 27-member block.

The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek is expected to visit Prague on Friday October 9. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Jan Fischer and the chairman of the lower house Miloslav Vlček to discuss the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. It is not yet clear if he will be meeting with President Václav Klaus. Mr. Buzek said this week he did not think it right to exert pressure on the Czech president in this respect. The ratification of the treaty is a democratic procedure in every member state and the Czechs have every right to take their time, Mr. Buzek said.