News

The renowned Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal will take over as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic in autumn 2009, a spokesperson for the orchestra said on Wednesday. Mr Inbal follows Zdeněk Mácal, who stepped down abruptly last year but still conducts some concerts for the Czech Philharmonic. The Prague-based orchestra will not appoint an interim chief conductor. Eliahu Inbal has broad international experience; he is best known for his interpretations of late-Romantic works but is also a noted opera conductor and has helmed the premieres of a number of modern pieces.

The opposition Social Democrats would like the media to be present should President Václav Klaus address the party’s MPs in the run up to Friday’s elections. Mr Klaus is seeking a second term in office, and is the favourite to win in the upcoming presidential elections. He has not yet confirmed that he will meet Social Democrat MPs, though his website suggests that he may visit the party’s deputies on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Social Democrats said that the party wanted any debate with Mr Klaus in the run up to the elections to be open to the public, and for this reason the party had invited the media along. The opposition Social Democrats have already pledged their support to Mr Klaus’s rival in the elections, the economist Jan Švejnar.

The regional governor for Southern Bohemia, Jan Zahradník, has responded to EU demands that a pig farm on the site of a wartime concentration camp for Romanies in the region be relocated. Mr Zahradník said the European Parliament’s calls to relocate the pig-farm ‘complicate ongoing negotiations’ and are ‘counterproductive’. A spokesperson for the regional governor added that the relocation of the pig-farm would cause job-losses and financial difficulties for farmers in the area. The region had previously agreed with the Czech government and Romanies living in the region to erect a memorial to the Romany Holocaust nearby the original site. But last week, the European Parliament reprimanded Czech authorities for not moving the pig-farm to another location and, on Monday, the Czech Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust followed suit.

The Czech Interior Ministry has said that it plans to cut the number of employees by 20% by the end of the year. On Tuesday, a ministry spokesperson said that the redundancies were part of a complete financial overhaul. The Interior Ministry also plans to sell off property, belonging both to the Czech police force, and to the ministry itself. It hopes to raise some 800 million CZK (40 million USD) through such cost-cutting measures. A representative of the ministry has said that the redundancies and sale of property are necessary to cut expenses, and so that the ministry’s best employees can be better remunerated.