News

A motion put forward in the Czech Chamber of Deputies calling for the resignation of Christian Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Cunek will not go before the house. The governing coalition comprising the Greens, Christian Democrats and Civic Democrats voted against the proposal put forward by opposition Social Democrat and Communist MPs. Mr Cunek is accused of taking a bribe when he was mayor of the Moravian town of Vsetin five years ago. He denies the charges and the governing parties have so far decided to stand by him.

A new opinion poll suggests that the right-wing Civic Democratic Party are by far the most popular party among Czech voters. According to the poll conducted by the STEM research agency, if an election were to be held now, the governing Civic Democrats would win 81 seats in the lower house of parliament. Which has 200 members. The opposition Social Democrats would be the next strongest party with 61 seats while the Communists would come a distant third with 23 mandates followed by the Christian Democrats with 22 seats and the Green Party with 13 deputies. Such a result would give the current ruling coalition a sizable majority of 116 seats. At the moment the government only has 100 seats in parliament and is relying on rebel opposition MPs for support.

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has said that he would like to see a woman as the next Czech head of state. Speaking in an interview with Czech state television on Tuesday morning, Mr Havel said that he thought it was time for a female candidate from the younger generation, which has grown up untainted by communism to be the next president. Mr Havel also ruled running for president again, but at the same time jokingly admitted he would consider putting his name forward if someone "slightly feared" his candidacy, which is seen by many as a veiled reference to his arch rival President Vaclav Klaus, who has announced he will run for re-election.

The Irish police have arrested the wife of a Czech man who was found stabbed to death in his home in County Tipperary, Ireland. The body of Patrick Solenski, aged 36, was discovered with a number of stab wounds to his stomach shortly before 11pm last Sunday evening and pronounced dead at the scene. He had been living with his Irish wife and two children in the area for five years and worked at a local meat plant. The case has made front page news in Ireland.