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Czech president Vaclav Klaus has reacted to Mr Liska’s nomination by questioning whether someone so young would be able to run the Education Ministry effectively. Mr Klaus voiced his opinion in an address to students of Brno’s Masaryk University, telling undergraduates that the thirty-year-old Liska was ‘not much older than they were’. Mr Klaus said that he foresaw difficulties in Mr Liska’s dealings with the sixty and seventy-year-old rectors of the Czech Republic’s biggest universities, and that for this reason, he would only be able to appoint Mr Liska against his better judgement.

Former deputy prime minister and current leader of the Christian Democrats, Jiri Cunek, is expected to make an announcement on whether he will attempt to regain his government posts in one week’s time. Senior Christian Democrat Michaela Sojdrova told journalists that Mr Cunek would discuss his next move with the party leadership on December 4.

Mr Cunek resigned from the posts of deputy prime minister and minister for regional development when an investigation into whether he had accepted a half-a-million crown bribe back in 2002 was reopened. This investigation has subsequently been dropped. In the days leading up to Mr Cunek’s resignation, Czech Television broadcast a report alleging that Mr Cunek claimed benefits while having millions of crowns deposited in different accounts. He is currently under police investigation in connection to this case. Mr Cunek has yet to remark upon whether he plans to return to the government, but his party are split over whether he should or not.

The Christian Democrats have invited current president Vaclav Klaus to address all of the party’s deputies next week, and have asked Mr Klaus’s potential presidential rival, Jan Svejnar, to address the party’s senators. The Christian Democrats are still undecided which candidate they will back in next February’s presidential elections. Mr Klaus already has the support of the Civic Democrats, while Mr Svejnar has been pledged the support of the Social Democrats and the Greens. It seems increasingly likely that the Christian Democrats will have the key vote on the matter. On Tuesday, senior party member Michaela Sojdrova invited Mr Klaus to address MPs on December 4. This is something that Mr Svejnar has already done. According to Mrs Sojdrova, the Christian Democrats do not know yet which candidate they will back but, she added, the party had every intention of settling upon one chosen candidate in the coming weeks.

According to research commissioned by the European Union, Czechs are amongst the most dependent upon mobile phones in Europe. The research found that for every 100 Czechs, there were 115 mobile telephones. Only Luxemburg, Lithuania and Italy ranked above the Czech Republic in this respect. Furthermore, some 42% of Czech households were found to be without a conventional landline phone, relying solely upon mobile telephones to make calls. Only Finland and Lithuania had a lower percentage of landline telephones installed in households than here in the Czech Republic. But the research found that the Czech Republic was one of the least chatty nations in Europe. Czechs talk on their phones for an average of 1.7 minutes a day. The only countries to use their phones less than the Czech Republic were Germany, Poland and Luxemburg.