News

Head of the Civic Democrats Mirek Topolánek met president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels on Tuesday and warned after the meeting that if the Czech Republic failed to ratify the Lisbon treaty, the country could be left without a European commissioner for the next five years. Mr Topolánek said that he would stake his ‘political future’ on the ratification of the EU reform document in the Czech Republic. On Wednesday, leader of the Czech Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek will also meet Mr Barroso to discuss nominations for the Czech Republic’s next euro-commissioner. It is thought that the Social Democrats would like current Czech EU commissioner Vladimír Špidla to remain in office for the next five years. The Civic Democrats are thought to favour either former European Affairs Minister Alexandr Vondra, or Mr Topolánek himself, for the commission post.

The Finance Ministry would like to delay a decision on the privatisation of state carrier Czech Airlines, Hospodářské noviny reported on Tuesday. Ministry official Tomáš Uvíra told the paper that those overseeing the privatisation would like until October 20, a fortnight more than scheduled, to make a final decision on the airline’s future. The deadline for bids remains September 30, the newspaper reports. On Tuesday afternoon, Finance Minister Eduard Janota said that a decision on the privatisation would be made in around 14 days. According to the Ministry’s Tomáš Uvíra, the Finance Ministry would like more time not only to assess the single bid for the airline, made by a consortium of Unimex-Travel Service, but to restructure the troubled airline, which announced record losses earlier this year.

Some of émigré author Milan Kundera’s critical work made its Czech debut in the country’s Senate on Tuesday, after the author translated several of his essays from French for a special debate. At the request of the debate’s organizers, the 80-year-old author translated some excerpts from his works L’Art du roman especially for the occasion. Mr Kundera is known to have a sometimes strained relationship with his homeland and many of his more recent works have yet to appear in Czech. At the ‘European Milan Kundera’ Seminar, which started at the Czech Senate on Tuesday, those present discussed the way in which the world-famous novelist’s texts depicted Europe as a cultural and political entity.

Pope Benedict XVI left the Czech Republic Monday evening after a final ceremony with President Václav Klaus marking the end of the pontiff’s first visit to the country. Speaking in Italian, President Klaus said the nation had listened to and understood the pope’s message of mutual understanding and tolerance, his faith and his ethics, and that the pope had brought hope to the nation. Pope Benedict wrapped up a weekend of many speeches with name’s day tidings for President Klaus, who had accompanied him for much of his three-day tour of the Czech Republic, and thanks to the country’s Catholic leaders before blessing the audience in Czech. Pope Benedict was said to be have been very pleased about his stay in the Czech Republic, which has one of the lowest populations of religious followers in Europe. Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi said that the leader of the world’s one billion Catholics had been impressed by the friendly reception he was given at his public masses, which were attended by larger audiences than originally expected.