News

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.

The Communist Party has said, however, that it will still support Mr Klaus’s rival Jan Švejnar in this Friday’s elections on three conditions. Firstly, it wants the parties currently backing Mr Švejnar – the Social Democrats and the Greens – to oppose the building of a U.S anti-missile radar base on Czech soil, which is currently being discussed. Secondly, the communists are demanding that the Social Democrats and the Greens enter into a ‘non-aggression pact’ with their party. They want more recognition from both of the parties, and warmer bilateral relations. Finally, the communists are demanding that presidential candidate Jan Švejnar himself treats the party with more respect. The Social Democrats have responded that they are willing to enter into negotiations with the communists, while the Green Party has said that it is not willing to change its stance.

The European Commission has advised the Czech Republic to cut its number of public service employees. In a review of how the country was progressing towards adoption of the single European currency, the EC said that the Czech Republic still had work to do on cutting its public spending. It recommended saving money by lowering the number of public service employees and freezing their pay. The evaluation was, however, more positive than last year’s with the commission praising the country for slashing its public finance deficit. The Czech Republic originally wanted to adopt the euro as early as next year, but it is expected that the country will now adopt the single European currency in 2012 at the earliest.