News

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has departed for a planned visit to China to take in the Beijing Olympics. Mr Topolánek will spend three days in the country although a detailed itinerary for the visit has not been made public. Several NGOs and other groups have been pressuring Mr Topolánek to address the issues of human rights, political prisoners and also Tibet during his stay. Although there is speculation just how Mr Topolánek will relay his concerns to China, most analysts are expecting a statement similar to those made by French president Nicolas Sarkozy or US president George W. Bush during similar visits.

All three of the country’s postal trade unions are to strike in protest at plans to fire 2,500 of the state company’s 37,000 employees. The move comes despite increasing profits and also increased demand for the services of the Czech post office, with employees citing hundreds of hours in accumulated overtime. The company has shed 8000 jobs in the last 15 years and is set to be floated on the stock exchange next year.

The unmistakable sign of forty years of Soviet domination of the Czech lands is set to make a possible comeback in the city of Brno. The sign, along with the communist Red Star was removed with gusto across the Czech lands following the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Now the hammer and sickle is set to return on a memorial stone in Králové Pole, Brno which houses a cemetery containing the remains of 236 Red Army soldiers that fought against the Nazis during World War II. For many, the sign is akin to the Nazi Swastika and inevitably the decision has raised eyebrows. However, local authorities have insisted that the decision has yet to be approved.

President Klaus has vetoed a law which would force companies to register all the chemicals they use. The law was drafted after the European Union issued a directive calling on member states to declare which chemicals were in use on their territory. At the time, President Klaus criticized the directive, calling it the most terrible thing to have emerged from the EU. The bill will now be returned to the chamber of deputies, where MPs are able to overturn the president’s no-vote. Environmental organizations have said that the bill only places moderate demands on the country’s chemical industry, while Czech chemical plants respond that the cost of implementing the bill would far outweigh the benefits.