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Police say they have identified one of the young men who threw rocks at Civic Democrat chairman and former prime minister Mirek Topolánek on Friday causing him a minor injury above the right eye. The man is allegedly the owner of the car in which the assailants left the scene. However, no suspects have been detained so far. The incident occurred in the south Moravian town of Hustopeče on Friday where Mr Topolánek, who is Civic Democrat election leader in the region, appeared at a rally ahead of October’s general elections. Czech politicians across the spectrum have condemned the act of violence against Mr Topolánek.

Around 120 far-right demonstrators gathered in the eastern town of Svitavy on Saturday afternoon for a fourth annual march in support of Vlastimil Pechanec, a member of the skinhead movement sentenced six years ago for a racially motivated murder. Due to heavy rain the protesters called off the march and held a meeting outside the local railway station. Several dozen police officers, including members of riot police, oversaw the gathering but no incidents were reported. Vlastimil Pechanec was sentenced to a 17-year jail sentence in 2003 for murdering a Romany man two years earlier, stabbing him twice in the stomach.

President Václav Klaus says he disagrees with the belief shared by a part of Czech society that the country has failed on its path to freedom and democracy during the past twenty years. In an opinion piece in Saturday’s Lidové noviny, President Klaus writes he does not agree with such an interpretation of the two decades of freedom and will not remain silent towards it. Mr Klaus also said a feeling of discontent in society is being fanned by the media, some intellectuals as well as politicians. In his article, Mr Klaus also calls on Czechs to try and find creative solutions to difficult situations on both individual and public level.

A recent survey by the SANEP polling agency suggests most Czechs would like state financing of political parties to be reduced. Also, eighty-four percent of those polled believe that members of the Senate should not receive salaries as the post of a Senator should be honorary. Nine out of ten respondents believe that parties that do not make it to parliament should not be given any state money for votes received. Currently, all parties that pass a three-percent threshold in parliamentary elections are entitled to a state subsidy.