News

Czech judge Pavel Nagy, who forged a report on court proceedings, has resigned. The news was released by Justice Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová on Friday. In early March, a disciplinary panel of the Supreme Court allowed the judge to continue, suffering only a 25 percent cut to his salary for six months. But Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil had called on Mr Nagy to resign and leave the judiciary. Mr Nagy had missed court proceedings and fabricated and registered a final defence speech in the protocol and issued a verdict as if the proceedings had taken place. He later argued that he suffered from stress and a sleep disorder. In March, the justice minister filed a criminal complaint against Mr Nagy for forgery and abuse of power.

Czech president Václav Klaus has vetoed an anti-discrimination bill passed in Parliament calling the legislation “poor, counter-productive and unnecessary”. The decision was revealed by the president’s office on Friday. The European Union has called on the Czech Republic to pass legislation ensuring equal access to education, work, and health care, but the president countered the legislation proposed was already covered sufficiently under Czech law. In a letter sent to the speaker of the lower house the president contends that EU directives are “only binding with regards to results”, but that the methods of achieving goals “depended on individual member states”. The aim of the anti-discrimination law, backed by the EU, is to ensure the same opportunities for all irrespective of age, race, nationality, sex, or religious belief. The bill will now return to the lower house.

Czech teachers' unions have called a one-day strike for June 9 in pursuit of higher wages for teachers as well as to protest the government's current pay offer. A representative said that teachers’ wages had fallen in real terms by 5.2 percent in 2008. According to the unions, more than half of the country's 200,000 teachers are in favour of striking, and are ready to close down nursery, primary and secondary schools. The government has offered teachers an extra 500 million crowns this year (around 31 million US dollars) and 4 billion the next. But the unions have demanded 3 billion this year with pay raises for support staff as well as teachers.

The finance ministry has opened a tender aimed at finding an advisor for the privatisation of the Czech national carrier, Czech Airlines. The process will run until August 7. The Czech government would like to sell the carrier, in which it holds a 91 percent stake, by the end of the year or early 2009. A spokesman for the finance ministry said that important criteria determining the choice of the winning advisory firm would include not only overall costs but also the privatisation plans themselves. Czech Airlines has been estimated as worth 5 billion crowns (the equivalent of more than 300 million US dollars). Potential interest in the carrier has been expressed in the past by both Aeroflot and Air France.