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06/20/2009
The leader of a new centre-right political party says the prospect of a coalition government with the Social Democrats is unrealistic. Speaking in an interview with the newspaper Lidové noviny, Top 09 chairman Karel Schwarzenberg said such a coalition was unlikely because of what he called dirty personal attacks on the part of the Social Democrats leader Jiří Paroubek. He also said the centre-left party had an “unhealthy financial and budgetary policy”. Mr Schwarzenberg, a former foreign minister, said wealthy businessman Zdeněk Bakala had offered to fund Top 09. The new party will take face its first electoral test in October, when early general elections take place.
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06/20/2009
Ondřej Liška will lead the Green Party into the October general elections. The Greens’ national council gave him near unanimous backing at a meeting in Prague on Saturday. A former minister of education, Mr Liška takes the reins following the resignation of Martin Bursík in the wake of poor results for the Greens in recent elections to the European Parliament. The party will elect a new chairman at a conference in December. Ondřej Liška, who is 31, has said he wants to hold talks with members of a Greens fraction which was strongly opposed to the leadership of Mr Bursík.
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06/20/2009
Around 350 people took part in a “Queer Pride” march in the centre of Tábor on Saturday. Police including riot units were out in force, as members of the far-right Workers’ Party also gathered in the central Bohemian town. A spokesperson said police had kept the extremists, who numbered around 30, away from the gay parade. The Czech Republic’s first big gay pride march, in Brno last June, was cut short when far-right extremists attacked participants.
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06/20/2009
As the countdown begins to the end of its presidency of the European Union, the Czech Republic has symbolically passed the baton to the incoming Swedish presidency – in the form of a barrel of beer. The Czech minister for European affairs, Štefan Füle, and former deputy PM for European affairs Alexandr Vondra made the presentation to Sweden’s ambassador to Prague, Rolf Ericsson, on the Vltava River in Prague on Saturday evening. The passing of the torch occurred against the backdrop of the end of the United Islands of Prague music festival, which took place at various venues on the Vltava.
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06/20/2009
The wife of Social Democrats leader Jiří Paroubek has accepted a rather unflattering prize on his behalf. Petra Paroubkova on Saturday picked up the Papaláš or Bigwig of the Year award from the organisers of a festival of political songs in Sokolov, west Bohemia. Accepting the prize, Mr Paroubek’s wife parodied the type of speech given by Oscar recipients, saying she and her partner had not expected it, and that she was speechless. One of the organisers told reporters he was surprised the couple had accepted the prize.
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06/20/2009
A pilot died after his light plane crashed in a field near the airport in Chrudim in east Bohemia shortly before lunchtime on Saturday. Three parachutists on the plane survived after jumping out of the aircraft before the crash. The causes of the accident are being investigated.
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06/20/2009
The agent of Pavel Nedvěd has held talks with Lazio about the possibility of the Czech soccer legend joining the club on a one-year contract, the newspaper Corriere Dello Sport reported. Nedvěd, who is 36, recently played his last game with another Italian club Juventus and indicated he was retiring. His agent was quoted by Corriere Dello Sport as saying the midfielder would decide on his future after he returned from a two-week holiday. Nedvěd spent five years at Lazio before joining Juve in 2001.
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06/19/2009
The European Union summit in Brussels, chaired by Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, called on Friday on the Iranian authorities to allow peaceful protests against the disputed presidential election. The summit also agreed on concessions designed to spur Ireland to ratify the Lisbon treaty. Leaders of the bloc’s 27 member states also supported the bid of Jose Manuel Barroso for another term as the president of the European Commission. The EU summit in Brussels is the last major event of the Czech presidency of the bloc; the Czech Republic will hand the presidency over to Sweden at the end of the month.
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06/19/2009
In related news, the Czech presidency of the European Union is likely to head an EU- India summit scheduled for June 29. Unlike the recent meeting of the European Union and Pakistan which was chaired by the Czech president, Václav Klaus, the EU-India summit will be held between foreign ministers.
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06/19/2009
The lower house of the Czech Parliament refused on Friday to grant foreigners unlimited rights to buy Czech real estate. The limitations were imposed on foreign nationals for the period of five years as part of the accession agreement between the Czech Republic and the EU in 2004. The limits expired on May 1 but are still part of the Foreign Exchange Act. However, Social Democrat and Communist MPs voted against the government’s amendment to alter the act. Finance Minister Edvard Janota told reporters the rejection was a “scandal” as the Czech Republic will now risk sanctions from the EU. Mr Janota said he will submit the amendment to the Chamber of Deputies again.
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