News

The 12th annual Days of European Cinema film festival has just got underway in Prague. It opened on Thursday night with a screening of the Hungarian film Kontroll, attended by the producer and two of the film's stars. After it ends in the capital on February 6, the festival moves on to the Czech Republic's second city Brno.

A Czech delegation joined world leaders and Holocaust survivors gathered in the Polish town of Auschwitz on Thursday to pay homage to the memory of millions of Holocaust victims on Holocaust Memorial Day. In the Czech Republic, among other special events, a plaque dedicated to people who helped save Czechoslovak Jews from the death camps has been unveiled at Prague's Pinkas Synagogue. It bears the names of the 160 people who saved around 200 Jewish children during the war. Some 80,000 Czechoslovak Jews perished in the Holocaust.

The central bank has unexpectedly cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, with the key repo rate down at 2.25 percent as of Friday. According to analysts, the reason for the decision was a new inflation forecast revised downwards and a stricter monetary policy due to the strong crown. The crown reaction came immediately, with a fall by 20 hellers to the euro to 30.25 crowns to the euro. Tied to the repo rate of the central bank are interest rates on bank deposits and loans.

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the Senate elections in the Prague 11 constituency are valid and confirmed the victory of Jan Nadvornik of the Civic Democratic Party. The Constitutional Court thus overturned the ruling of the Supreme Court which earlier invalidated the outcome of the elections in Prague 11 on the grounds that the election campaign had been conducted in a dishonest manner, in violation of the election law. This was in reference to a number of slanderous articles against the unsuccessful candidate which appeared in the local papers. Political observers say the Constitutional Court's ruling has set an important precedent.