News

Presidential candidate Jan Švejnar has rejected rumors that he is considering withdrawing from the race, on the reasoning that with the appearance of a third candidate his chances of beating incumbent Václav Klaus are significantly lower. Mr. Švejnar’s spokeswoman Klára Pospíšilová said the challenger had no intention of backing out ahead of Friday’s election and hinted that whoever was spreading the rumor intended to damage Mr. Švejnar ahead of the vote. The Czech-American economist’s chances now hinge on the Communist Party, which has attached a number of conditions to its support of Mr. Švejnar, nominating its own candidate in the event of these conditions not being met. Observers say that the nomination of a third candidate – Jana Bobošiková – will boost President Klaus’ chances in the elections since the anti-Klaus vote will be split between two candidates.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again warned that his country would target missiles at the Czech Republic if it were to host a US tracking radar on its territory. Speaking at a press briefing for foreign journalists President Putin said the governments of the Czech Republic and Poland should think carefully before agreeing to be part of the US missile defense shield because they would be putting their own people at risk. The Russian president, whose term in office ends in May, moreover underlined the fact that repeated polls in both countries indicated that neither Czech nor Polish citizens wanted US missile defense facilities on their territory. Although neither country has as yet made a commitment, both the Czech and Polish governments are engaged in negotiations with Washington on the missile defense project. The two countries parliaments are expected to vote on the matter in the course of this year.

The Prague stock exchange first gained but then started sliding on Tuesday morning. At midday the PX index was only 0.18 percent stronger at 1,572.7 points. The biggest gainers are Unipetrol, VIG and Philips Morris CR. The losers include AAA Auto, Zentiva, CETV, and ECM.

The leadership of the Christian Democratic Party has urged its members to push for a secret ballot in this Friday’s presidential elections. This is a u-turn on the part of the Christian Democrats, who, in the first round of presidential elections last week, pushed for a public vote. The governing Civic Democrats are also for a secret ballot, which is said to favour their candidate for the presidency, Václav Klaus. It is thought that if both the Christian and the Civic Democrats vote in favour of a secret ballot, then they should have enough votes to push this method of election through. The leader of the Christian Democrats, Jiří Čunek, said that he had changed his stance on the way the elections should be conducted because of the ‘undignified character’ of last week’s public vote.