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08/28/2009
The leader of the Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, has filed a lawsuit against the magazine Reflex over an article it published this week which he says is disrespectful to himself and his wife Petra, who is pregnant. The cover of the weekly features a montage of the couple in a pose referencing a famous photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, in which the former is naked. Mrs Paroubková, whose baby is due in the autumn, was taken to hospital on Thursday, apparently after becoming upset when she saw the image.
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08/28/2009
The environmental group Greenpeace unfurled a banner on Prague’s Old Town Hall on Friday morning at the precise moment the Czech president, Václav Klaus, was launching a new book attacking Green politics at a café across the street. The Greenpeace sign pointed out that there were only 100 days until a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen and said action had to be taken. Mr Klaus questions received wisdom on global warming, denying that mankind is responsible for it. He also accuses environmentalists of impinging on people’s freedom. The title of the president’s new book translates as Blue Planet Under Threat; it follows 2007’s Blue Planet in Green Shackles.
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08/28/2009
Meanwhile, Mr Klaus has announced plans to publish a book looking at communism, the fall of that system 20 years ago, and developments since then. In a recent newspaper article he said that it was wrong to believe that the road to freedom and democracy over the last two decades had not been handled well. The president also says the role of individuals in bringing about the end of communism is overrated; he says the Eastern Bloc’s regimes collapsed after reaching a state of exhaustion.
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08/28/2009
The previous Czech president, Václav Havel, is to discuss “climate change in Czech society” in a video for the Green Party, who he is backing in October’s elections. The Greens are planning to put the one-minute film on their Youtube channel and may also broadcast it on television. Opinion polls suggest the party may not get into the lower house in the elections.
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08/28/2009
The Prague clubs Slavia and Sparta have both qualified for the group stage of European football’s second-tier competition the Europa League. Slavia lost 2:1 away to Red Star Belgrade on Thursday but went through 3:2 on aggregate, while Sparta beat Maribor 1:0 at home, making it 3:0 on aggregate. Slovan Liberec, Baník Ostrava and Teplice were all knocked out.
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08/27/2009
Czech President Václav Klaus has stepped into a row over South Bohemian forests, being the first to sign a petition against the Environment Ministry’s handling of a destructive bark beetle epidemic. The bark beetle has destroyed large areas of forest in the Šumava National Park, worrying both citizens and logging companies. The Ministry of the Environment however has taken a hands-off approach to the issue, saying that such epidemics are a natural part of a forest’s ecosystem.
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08/27/2009
The Czech Transport pilots’ Union has announced that Czech Airline pilots are prepared to go on unlimited strike due to what they call the airline’s attempts to silence critics. The head of the pilots’ union, Filip Gaspar, was reprimanded on Wednesday for allegedly leaking internal information to the press. Flight technicians and engineers are reportedly also considering striking. Mr Gaspar also stated at Thursday’s press conference that there would be no doubt of a strike in the event of his being dismissed.
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08/27/2009
Prime Minister Jan Fischer met Thursday with Finance Minister Eduard Janota and the heads of the country’s two largest parties to familiarise them with Finance Ministry proposals for the 2010 state budget. Mr Janota has proposed increasing VAT rates, raising the tax on automobile fuels, and cutting budget spending. Speaking after the meeting, Social Democratic Party chairman Jíři Paroubek said he objects to the Finance Ministry’s recommendation that the measures be approved as a package. Mirek Topolánek of the Civic Democratic Party said that it would be up to the post-election government either to approve the caretaker government’s budget or to put forward its own plan. The Ministry of Finance has said that in the absence of the proposed changes, the budget deficit for 2010 could rise to 230 billion crowns.
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08/27/2009
The Ministry of Regional Development has released data on the use of EU funds in the Czech budget. In the 2004-2006 budget years the Czech Republic received 1.64 billion euros, which constitutes 98% of the amount available for that period. Projects financed from the funds included the creation of nearly 22,000 jobs and new water services for almost 60,000 households. The current 2007-2013 budget period allows financing of up to 26.7 billion euros, of which the Regional Development Ministry has so far requested roughly one fifth, spread out over some 12,000 approved projects.
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08/27/2009
Archaeologists in Prague have discovered medieval Jewish tombstones at a construction site at the Národní třída station of the metro. Preliminary research suggests that the markers are not components of a burial site, but were instead taken from a former cemetery lying to the south and used as building material. The discovery of a Jewish cemetery on the site of what is to become a multifunctional building would likely be an unpleasant surprise to the building’s investors; 10 years ago, Jewish communities in the Czech Republic and even abroad demonstrated and eventually forced changes to the construction of a parking garage - not far from Národní třída - when a Jewish burial site was found on the site.
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